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'^^^A^o-^>''n.M^ CyoA 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 THOMAS PAINE; 
 
 HOVER OF THE " DECLARATION OP INDEPENDKNCB ;" SECRBTART OF FOREIGN AFFAIRrt UXDKR THE 
 
 FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS ; MEMBER OP THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF FRANCE ; AUTHOR OF 
 
 "COMMON SENSE," "THE CRISIS/' " BIGR-ra OP MAN,'^ '* AGE OP REASON/' AC, tCl 
 
 THE MAN, 
 
 VHOSR HOrro WAS, 
 
 "the world is my couNTRy; to do good, my religion." 
 
 EMBRAaNG 
 
 PEACTICAL CONSLDEEATIONS ON H.UMAN RIGHTS ; 
 
 DEMONSTRATING THAT 
 
 MAN TENDS lEEEPEESSIBLT TO ACTUAL FEEEDOM; 
 
 AND SHOWING 
 
 A LIBERT Y-AIM CONNECTION 
 
 IS THE ACTION OF THE WORLD'S 
 
 THRBK GRIDAT AUTH0R-H£R0E:S,-- 
 
 ROUSSEAU, PAINE, AND COMTE. 
 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CALVIN BLANCHARD, 
 
 76 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1860. 
 
Entbeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand, eight 
 "■ hundred and sixty, by CALVIN BLANCHARD, in the Clerk's 
 Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
 District of New York. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A full and impartial history of Thomas Paine alone can supply 
 that, the omission of which falsifies every work pretending to give 
 ,^n account of the war for the national independence of the United 
 States. 
 
 The American Revolution of 1116, of which Thomas Paine 
 was the author-hero, was the prelude to that far more sanguinary 
 struggle against oppression and wrong which overturned, or irre- 
 parably shook, every throne in Western Europe ; including, in the 
 category, even the chair of St. Peter ; and of which struggle the 
 most prominent author-hero was Jean Jacques Rousseau. 
 
 This is generally understood. But a truth incalculably more 
 important has hitherto been either wholly overlooked, or but glim- 
 meHngly perceived ; it is this : — Both the American and French 
 Revolutions were but prominent incidents, or crisis-stages, in the 
 irrepressible struggle for human rights which commenced when na- 
 ture implanted in her highest organism, man, that instinct which 
 points to the goal of development ; that unconquerable desire for 
 perfect and sufficiently-lasting or " eternal " happiness, which indi- 
 cates the common aim and attainable end of science, of art, and of 
 all natural, materialistic, or intelligible activities : — that thirst for 
 liberty which can be satisfied by nothing short of the revolution 
 which will remove all constraint — which will accomplish revolution 
 — and thus justify Luther, Rousseau, Paine, Foumek, and all other 
 revolutionists. Of this' crowning revolution, the text-book is "The 
 Positive Philosophy" of Augustk Comte. 
 
 Had Thomas Paine been seconded as valiantly when he made 
 priestcraft howl, as he was when he hurled defiance against kingsi, 
 despotism by this time would really, instead of only nominally, have 
 lain as low as did its minions at Trenton and Torktown. The land 
 over which the star-spangled banner waves would not have become 
 the prey of corrupt, spoil-seeking demagogues, nor would Europe 
 now tremble at the nod of a military dictator. 
 
 Not but that priestcraft itself has a-sub.structure, all but "super- 
 naturally" profound, which must be sapped before justice can be 
 more than a mockery, freedom aught but a mere abstraction, or hap- 
 piness little else than an ignis fatuus. But man should have con- 
 tinued the great battle for his rights when the soldiers and author- 
 heroes of liberty were in the full flush of victory ; instead of making 
 that vain, mischievous and ridiculous {except as provisional) com- 
 promise with the human incliiiations,called duty ; and falling back 
 on that miserable armistice between the wretched poor and the un- 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 happy rich, for the conditions of which, consult that refinement of 
 treachery, misnamed a constitution, and that opaque entanglement, 
 absurdly entitled law. Can right be done and peace be maintained, 
 under institutions whose ultimatum is to give half a breakfast to the 
 million, and half a million or fo to the balance of mankind, condi- 
 tioned on such anxiety on the part of the latter, lest they be added 
 to the million before dinner-time, that dyspepsia, rather than nu- 
 trition, "waits on nppetite ?" Is man irremediably doomed to a con- 
 dition which, at shorter and shorter intervals, forces him to seek re- 
 lief in one of those saturnalias of carnage and devastation which 
 throws progress aback, menaces civilization even, and yet but par- 
 tially and temporarily mitigates human ills ? Is this the whole sum, 
 substance and end of revolution ? It appears to me, that they who 
 believe this, and who admire and commend Thomas Paine from 
 their stand-point, dishonour his memory far more than his professed 
 enemies do or can. 
 
 But to enable all to understandingly form their own conclusions, 
 I shall give all the essential facts with respect to the history before 
 us, with which a long and careful search, under most favourable 
 circumstances, has made me acquainted. For, let fads be fairly 
 stated, and truth he fully known, is the correlate of the proposition 
 (the correctness of which I demonstrated in a former work "The 
 Beligion of Science") that nature ; simple, scienuflc and artistic, 
 will prove all-sufScient ; and neither needs, nor admits the possibility 
 of, a superior: that man, therefore, requires nothing more than what 
 nature is capable of being developed into producing ; nor can he 
 know aught beyond nature, or form what can intelligibly be called 
 an idea of any happiness or good, superior to that which, by means 
 of the substantial, including of course, man himself, can be procured. 
 
 There needs but to have the light of truth shine fully upon the 
 real character of Thomas Paine, to prove him to have been a far 
 greater man than his most ardent admirers have hitherto given him 
 credit for being. Paine's history is so intimately connected with that 
 of progress both before and since his time, that it will necessarily 
 embrace a very wide range of liberal information. 
 
 I am not unmindful that there have been hundreds, perhaps 
 thousands of author-heroes and heroines. Bacon, Locke, Luther, 
 Voltaire,* Fourier and Robert Owen were prominently of the former, 
 and Mary WoUstonecraft and Frances Wright were decidedly 
 among the latter. But it appears to me, that none of their writings 
 have been quite such text-books of revolution, as those of Rousseau 
 and Paine were, and those of Comte now are. 
 
 * Schlosser, in his "History of the Eighteenth Century," whilst speaking 
 of Voltaire, Shaftesbury, and "the numerous deists who were reproachfully 
 called atheists," says, that they "wielded the weapons" which Locke "had 
 forged." 
 
LIFE 
 
 OP 
 
 THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 PERIOD FIRST. 
 1737—1774. 
 
 FROM ME. PAINE'S BIRTH, TO HIS AEBIVAL IN AMERICA. 
 
 Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, Norfolk county, 
 England, on the 29th of January, 1737. 
 
 His father was a member of the society of Friends, and a 
 staymaker by trade ; his mother professed the faith of the 
 church of England. 
 
 At the, age of about thirteen years, he left the common 
 school, in which, in addition to the branches of education 
 usually taught therein, he had learned the rudiments of Latin, 
 and went to work with his father. But his school teacher, 
 who had been chaplain on board a man-of-war, had infused 
 into his young and ardent mind such an enthusiasm for the 
 naval service, that after reluctantly toiling about three years 
 at his not very lucrative or promising calling, he left home, 
 evidently resolved to " seek the bubble reputation even in the 
 cannon's mouth," and to pursue his fortune through such 
 chances as the war then imminent between his' country and 
 France, might offer. 
 
 Dreadful must have been the conflict between his com- 
 passionate nature and his necessities and ambition. Arrived 
 in London, without friends or money, he, nevertheless, strove 
 by every means in his power to settle himself honorably in 
 the world, without embracing the dreadful profession he had 
 been both constituted and educated to look upon with hor- 
 ror : he even hesitated so far as to return to his old occupa- 
 tion. 
 
6 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 After working a few weeks for Mr. Morris, in Hanover- 
 street, Long Acre, he went to Dover, where he also worked 
 a short time for a Mr Grace. 
 
 War between England and France had now been de- 
 clared ; our hero was in all the buoyancy of youth, being not 
 yet seventeen years old ; fortune and glory were possible on 
 the one hand, poverty and toil inevitable on the other. 
 
 War is murder, 'tis true ; murder, all the more heinous for 
 being gloried in ; murder, all the more abominable for the mag- 
 nificence of the scale on which it is perpetrated ; murder, which 
 touches the lowest depths of cowardice, in being carried on 
 by vast armies and immense fleets, instead of by smaller and 
 bolder gangs of pirates, and by. more venturesome banditti. 
 But its infernal craft would sail, and its death-dealing can- 
 non be manned, equally with or without him ; and the place 
 which he refused would be taken, probably by some one with 
 far less tenderness for a wounded or surrendered foe. 
 
 On board the privateer " Terrible," Captain Death, en- 
 listed, probably in the capacity of a sailor or marine, the 
 man who was afterwards the soul of a revolution which ex- 
 tended elective government over the most fertile portion of 
 the globe, including an area more than twenty times larger 
 than that of Great Britain, and who had, the unprecedented 
 honor to be called, though a foreigner, to the legislative 
 councils of the foremost nation in the world. 
 
 For some unexplained cause, Paine left the " Terrible " 
 almost immediately, and shipped on board the " King of 
 Prussia." But the affectionate remonstrances of his father 
 soon induced him to quit privateering altogether. 
 
 In the year 1759, he settled at Sandwich, as a master 
 staymaker. There he became acquainted with a yoiing 
 woman of considerable personal attractions, whose name was 
 Mary Lambert, to whom he was married about the end of the 
 same year. 
 
 His success in business not answering his expectations, 
 he, in the year 1760, removed to Margate. Here his wife 
 died. 
 
 From Margate he went to London ; thence back again 
 to his native town ; where, through the influence of Mr. Cock- 
 sedge, the recorder, he, towards the end of 1763, obtained a 
 situation in the excise. 
 
 Under the pretext of some trifling fault, but really, as 
 there is every reason for supposing, because he was too con- 
 scientious to connive at the villainies which were practiced 
 
PERIOD FIRST. ( 
 
 by both his superiors and his compeers in office, he was 
 dismissed from his situation in little more than a year. It 
 has never been publicly stated for what it was pretended 
 that he was dismissed ; and the fact that he was recalled in 
 eleven months thereafter, shows that whatever the charge 
 against him was, it was not substantiated, nor probably, a 
 very grave one. That the British government, in its subse- 
 quent efforts to destroy his character, never made any handle 
 of this affair, is conclusive in his favor. 
 
 During his suspension from the excise, he repaired to 
 London, where he became a teacher in an academy kept by 
 Mr. Noble of Goodman's Fields ; and during his leisure hours, 
 he applied himself to the study of astronomy and natural phi- 
 losophy. He availed himself of the advantages which the 
 philosophical lectures of Martin and Ferguson afforded, and 
 made the acquaintance of Dr. Bevis, an able astronomer, of 
 the Royal Society. 
 
 On his re-appointment to the excise, Paine returned to 
 Thetford, where he continued till the Spring of 1768, when 
 the duties of his office called him to Lewes, in Sussex. There 
 he boarded in the family of Mr Ollive, tobacconist ; but at 
 the end of about twelve months, the latter died. Paine suc- 
 ceeded him in business, and in the year 1771, married his 
 daughter. 
 
 In 1772, he wrote a small pamphlet entitled " The Case 
 of the Excise Officers." Although this was specially intended - 
 to cover the case of a very ill paid class of. government 
 officers, it was a remarkably clear and concise showing that 
 the only way to make people honest, is to relieve them 
 from the necessity of being otherwise. 
 
 This pamphlet excited both the alarm and hatred of his 
 superiors in office, who were living in luxury and ease, and 
 who, besides getting nearly all the pay for doing hardly any 
 of the work, were becoming rich by smuggling, which their 
 positions enabled them to carry on almost with impunity. 
 They spared no pains to pick some flaw in the character or 
 conduct of the author of their uneasiness, but could find 
 nothing of which to accuse him, except that he kept a tobacco- 
 nist's shop ; this however, under the circumstances, was suffi- 
 cient, and the most honest, if not the only conscientious ex- 
 ciseman in all England, was finally dismissed, in April, 
 1774. 
 
 Paine associated with, and was highly respected by the 
 best society in Lewes, although so poor, that in a month after 
 
8 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINEii*!*' 
 
 his dismissal from office, his goods had to be sold to pay his 
 debts ; a very strong proof that he had never abused his offi- 
 cial trust. 
 
 I have twice already so far violated my own taste, to 
 please that of others, as to mention that the subject of these 
 memoirs had been married. But I cannot consent to meddle 
 further with, and assist the public to peer into affairs with 
 which none but the parties immediately concerned have any 
 business, except under protest. Therefore, I do now most 
 solemnly protest, that I feel more guilty, more ashamed, and 
 more as though I ought to have my nose rung, for writing 
 any thing at all about Mr. and Mrs. Paine's sexual affairs, 
 than I should, were I to enter into a serious inquiry respect- 
 ing the manner in which they performed any of their natural 
 functions. Still, reader, you may be sure of my fidelity ; you 
 need not suspect that I'm going to suppress any of the facts, 
 for if I undertake to do a thing, I'll carry it through, if it's 
 ever so mean. 
 
 To begin, then : — 
 
 In the flowery month of May, exactly one thousand seven 
 hundred and seventy-four years after Jehovah had been pre- 
 sented with a son by a woman whom he never, inot even subse- 
 quently, married, Mr. and Mrs. Pains separated ; not through 
 the intervention of the grim tyrant who had caused the sepa- 
 ration between Mr. Paine and his first wife, but for that most 
 heinous of all imaginable causes, in old fogy estimation, wai- 
 tual consent. On the/ourth of June, in the year just designated, 
 Mr. Paine signed articles of agreement, freely relinquishing to 
 his wife all the property of which marriage had legally robbed 
 her for his benefit. This was just; but a Thomas Paine would 
 blush to call it magnaminous. Behold them both, in the prime of 
 life, in a predicament in which they were debarred, by the inscru- 
 table wisdom Qi society, from the legal exercise of those func- 
 tions on which nearly all their enjoyments, including health 
 itself, depended. 
 
 All the causes of this separation are not known. Well, 
 I'm heartily glad of it. Yet I delight not in beholding vexa- 
 tion and disappointment, even though the victims are the im- 
 pertinently inquisitive. Still, I repeat, I'm most heartily 
 glad of it. 
 
 That neither Mr. nor Mrs. Paine abused, or voluntarily 
 even offended each other, is conclusive from the fact that Mr. 
 Paine always spoke very respectfully and kindly of his wife ; 
 and, says the veracious Clio Rickman, " frequently seat her 
 
PEKIOD FIRST. 9 
 
 money, without letting her know the source whence it came ;" 
 and Mrs. Paine always held her husband in such high esteem, 
 though she differed widely from him in the important and 
 complicated matter of religion, that if any one spoke disre- 
 spectfully of him in her presence, she deigned not a word of 
 answer, but indignantly left the room, even though she were 
 at table. If questioned on the subject of her separation from 
 her marital partner, she did the same. Sensible woman. 
 
 " Clio Rickman asserts, and the most intimate friends of 
 Mr. Paine support him," says Mr. Gilbert Vale in his excel- 
 lent Life of Paine,* to which I here, once for all, acknowl- 
 edge myself much indebted, " that Paine never cohabited with 
 his second wife. Sherwin treats the subject as ridiculous ; 
 but Clio Rickman was a man of integrity, and he asserts that 
 he has the documents showing this strange point, together 
 with others, proving that this arose from no physical defects 
 in Paine." When the question was plainly put to Mr. Paine 
 by a friend, instead of spitting in the questioner's face, or 
 kicking him, he replied : — "I had a cause ; it is no business 
 of anybody." Oh, immortal Paine ! Did you know the feel- 
 ings which the writing of the five last paragraphs has cost me, 
 you would forgive ; ay, even pity me. 
 
 And now, dear public, having, to please you, stepped aside 
 from the path of legitimate history, permit me to continue 
 the digression a little, in order to please myself. Surely you 
 can afford some extra attention to one who has sacrificed his 
 feelings, and, but for what I am now going to say, will have 
 sacrificed his self-respect, even, for your accommodation. 
 
 A large portion of the christian world believes that the 
 marriage tie, once formed, sliould continue till severed by 
 death, or adultery. This is supposed to be, — first, in accor- 
 dance with scripture ; secondly, in accordance with the best 
 interests of society. " What God hath joined, let not man 
 put asunder," except for " cause of adultery," is the text in 
 the first place, and the prevention of licentiousness, and regard 
 lor the interests of children, constitute the pretext in the 
 second place. But society blindly jumps to the conclusion 
 that the constantly varying decrees of hgishtive bodies desig- 
 nate " what God hath joined," and that august body is equally 
 uncritical with respect to what adultery, both according to 
 scripture and common sense, means. When any joining be- 
 
 * " This Life of Thomas Paine," by G. Vale, is published at the office 
 of that most able advocate of free discussion, the " Boston Investigator." 
 
10 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 comes abhorent to the feelings wliich almighty power has im- 
 planted in man, to attempt to force the continuance of such 
 joining, under the plea of authority from such power, is most 
 atrocious ; and " Jesus," or whoever spoke in his name, thus 
 rationally defines adultery. "Whoso looketh onawoman to 
 lust after her." " Jesus " did not condemn the woman, who, 
 under pressure of legal restriction, commitied the " very act " 
 of adultery ; but he did condemn her accusers, in the severest 
 and most cutting manner possible. 
 
 We have already shown the utter disregard which the 
 supposed almighty father of Jesus showed — for monogamic. 
 marriage ; that he did not even respect vested rights in the 
 connection ; that he who is believed to have said, — " be ye 
 perfect even as I am perfect," trampled on the marital rules 
 according to which the poor carpenter, Joseph, had been be- 
 trothed to his Mary. 
 
 How well the son of Mary followed in the footsteps of 
 his " Almighty " father, we have already demonstrated ; and 
 I shall close all I have to say on the supposed divinity of this 
 subject, by calling the attention of the reader to the high re- 
 spect which ' Jesus " paid to the woman who had had five 
 husbands, and who was, at the time he did her the honor to 
 converse with her in public, and to even expound his mission 
 to her, cohabiting with a man to whom she was not married. 
 Nothing in scripture is plainer, than that Jesus was such an 
 out and out free-lover in principle, as to hold that as soon as 
 married people looked on others than each other with lust- 
 ful eyes, they were no longer so, legally ; but that their old 
 connections should give place to new ones. In the perfect 
 state which " Jesus " in his parabolical language called 
 "Heaven," he explicitly declared, in reference tp what the 
 old fogies of his time called marriage, "that they neither marry 
 nor are given in marriage ;" and if " the Saviour " said this 
 in reprobation of the comparatively slight bondage which en- 
 cumbered marriage in Judea, eighteen hundred years ago, 
 what would he say, were he to visit Christendom at the 
 present time ? 
 
 Would'nt he make the " whip of small cords " with which 
 he thrashed the money changers, whiz about the ears of 
 those legislators and judges, who dare christen their tyranni- 
 cal and abominable inventions marriage ! who have the au- 
 dacity to attribute their wretched expedients and stupid blun- 
 ders to eternal wisdom ? 
 
 So much as to the sqj iptural view of marriage. For in- 
 
PERIOD FIRST. 11 
 
 formation as to the eflfects of " legal marriage " in the cure of 
 licentiousness, and in promoting the welfare of children, con- 
 sult the records of prostitution, the alms-house registers, and 
 the swarms of beggars, by which you are continually impor- 
 tuned. As to the effect of the " holy bonds " on domestic feli- 
 city, I verily believe that if they were suddenly and com- 
 pletely severed, the dealers in arsenic who happened to have 
 but little stock on hand, would bless their lucky stars. 
 
 And I speak from a knowledge of the causes which either 
 favorably or unfavorably affect the human organism, in say- 
 ing, that it is perfectly certain, that if the unnatural tie which 
 arrogates the name of marriage, was universally severed, sui- 
 cide would diminish one half, idiotcy and insanity would dis- 
 appear, prolapsus uteri and hysteria would be almost un- 
 known, the long catalogue of diseases consequent on hopeless 
 despair, dreary ennui, and chronic fretfulness, would be shorn 
 of nine tenths its present length, the makers of little shrouds 
 and coffins would have little or nothing to do, and the busi- 
 ness of abortionists would be ruined. In short, if matrimo- 
 nial bondage was abolished, and our social structure reorgan- 
 ized, so as to correspond with the change, the " broken spirit" 
 that " drieth the bones " would so give place to " the merry 
 heart, that doeth good like a medicine, that little of the 
 doctor's medicine would be needed ; and human life would re- 
 ceive an accession of at least twenty per cent, in length, and 
 one hundred per cent, m value. 
 
 But indissoluble marriage, and its correlates, adultery, 
 fornication, prostitution, the unmentionable crime against 
 nature, and masturbation, are part and parcel of the present 
 imperfect condition of all things in man s connection ; of the 
 remedy for which, I shall treat, when I come to consider the 
 universality and thoroughness of the revolution in which 
 Paine was, without but glimflieringly perceiving it, so efficient , 
 an actor. 
 
 In 1774, Mr, Paine went again to London ; where, soon 
 after his arrival, he made the acquaintance of Dr. Franklin, 
 (then on an embassy to the British government, from one of her 
 North American provinces,) who, 'perceiving in him, abilities 
 of no ordinary character, advised him to quit his native 
 country, where he was surrounded by so many difficulties, and 
 try his' fortun3 in America ; he also gave him a letter of in- 
 troduction to one of his most intimate friends in Philadelphia. 
 
 Paine left England towards the end of the year 1774, 
 aqd arrived in Philadelphia about two months thereafter. 
 
PERIOD SECOND. 
 
 1774—1787. 
 
 FROM ME. PAINE'S ARRIVAL IN AMERICA, TO HIS DEPARTURE 
 
 FOE PRANCE ; EMBRACING HIS TRANSACTIONS IN THE 
 
 AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 Shortly after the arrival of Mr.' Paine in America, he was 
 engaged as editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, the publica- 
 tion of which had just been commenced, by Mr. Aitkin, book- 
 seller, of Philadelphia. This brought him acquainted with 
 Dr. Rush. 
 
 Up to this period, Paine had been a whig. But from the 
 practical tone of much of his editorial, it is probable that he 
 now began to suspect that that speculative abstraction, Brit- 
 ish constitutionalism, had exhausted its usefulness in the 
 economy of the social organism ; and that human progress 
 could reach a higher plane than that, the foundations of which 
 were a theological church establishment, and its correspond- 
 ing hotch-potch of kings, lords, and commons. And here I 
 will remark, that Paine's distinguishing characteristic — the 
 trait which constituted his greatness— was his capability of 
 being ahead of his time. Were he bodily present now, he 
 would be as far in advance of the miserable sham of freedom 
 to which the majorityism which he advocated, though pro- 
 visionally necessary, has dwindled, as he was in advance of the 
 governmental expedient, which reached the stage of effete- 
 ness in his day. " The Crisis," instead of commencing with 
 " These are the times that try men's " souls," would begin 
 with "These are the times that exhaust men's power of en- 
 durance. Demagogism, with the whole power of the majority 
 to enforce its tyranny, has declared that " to the victors be- 
 long the spoils ;" that it has a right to bind the minority in 
 all cases whatsoever. Its recklessness is in complete contrast 
 with the regard which even Britain pays to the interests of 
 her subjects ; and in taxation, and peculation in office, it out- 
 does Austrian despotism itself." 
 
PERIOD SECOND 13 
 
 " Majorityism has carried its insolence so far as to des- 
 pise nothing so much as the name and memory of him -who 
 risked his life, his honor, his all, to protect its infancy ; it 
 has scornfully refused his portrait a place on the walls of the 
 very hall which once rang with popular applause of the elo- 
 quence, which his soul-stirring pleas for elective franchise in- 
 spired." 
 
 "Yes ; the city council of Philadelphia has, in 1859, in 
 obedience to the commands of that public opinion, which was 
 the court of last appeal, of him who first, on this continent, 
 dared pronounce the word American Independence, refused 
 his portrait a place by the side of his illustrious co-workers ; 
 thus rebuking, and most impudently insulting Washington, 
 who in an exstacy of admiration grasped the hand of the 
 author of " Common Sense,"and invited him to share his 
 table ; Franklin, who invited him to our shores ; Lafayette, 
 to whom he was dearer than a brother ; Barlow, who pro- 
 nounced him " one of the most benevolent and disinterested 
 of mankind ;" Thomas Jefferson, who sent a government ship 
 to reconduct him to our shores ; and all the friends of popu- 
 lar suffrage in France, who, at the time that tried men's souls 
 there, elected him to their national councils." 
 
 " Like the Turkish despot, who cut off the head, and blot- 
 ted out of existence the family, of his prime minister, to whom 
 he owed the preservation of his throne, majorityism has 
 crowded the name of its chief apostle almost out of the his- 
 tory of its rise. " 
 
 " Freedom of speech, particularly on reMgious subjects, and 
 on the government's pet project, is a myth ; every seveBlE 
 day, the freedom of action is restricted to going to church, 
 dozing away the time in the house, taking a disreputable 
 stroll, or venturing on a not strictly legal ride. We have 
 nothing, like the amount of individual freedom which is en- 
 joyed by the men and women of imperially governed France; 
 and notwithstanding the muzzling of the press by Louis Na- 
 poleon, there could be published, within the very shade of the 
 Tuileries, a truer and more liberal history of Democracy and 
 its leaders, and of American Independence, than any consider- 
 able house, except the one from which this emanates, daro 
 put forth, within the vast area over which the star-spangled 
 banner waves. 
 
 This is but a tithe of the despotism which public opinion, 
 free to be formed by priests, and directed by demagogues, 
 has inflicted : but a faint view of how abominably prostituted 
 
14 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 liberty must inevitably become, if unregulated by science. If 
 democracy has not exhausted all the good there was in it — 
 if majorityism has not become effete, and as obnoxious to 
 progress as monarchy ever was — ^in short, if what is now called 
 liberty, is not slavery, there is not such a thing as slavery on 
 the earth." 
 
 At the close of the year 1775, when the American Revo- 
 lution had progressed as far as the battles of Lexington and 
 Bunker Hill, John Adams, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Frank- 
 lin, and George Washington, had met together to read the 
 terrible dispatches, they had received. Having done which, 
 they pause in gloom and silence. Presently Franklin speaks : 
 " What," he asks, " is to be the end of all this ? Is it to 
 obtain justice of G-reat Britain, to change the ministry, 
 
 to soften a tax ? Or is it for" He paused ; the word 
 
 independence yet choked the bravest throat that sought to 
 utter it. 
 
 At this critical moment, Paine enters. Franklin intro- 
 duces him, and he takes his seat. He veil knows the cause 
 of the prevailing gloom, and breaks the deep silence thus : 
 " These States of America must be independent of England. 
 That is the only solution of this question !" They all rise to 
 their feet at this political blasphemy. But, nothing daunted, he 
 goes on ; his eye lights up with patriotic fire as he paints the 
 glorious destiny which America, considering her vast resources, 
 ought to achieve, and adjures them to lend their influence to 
 rescue the Western Continent from the absurd, unnatural, 
 and unprogressive predicament of being governed by a small 
 IWstnd, three thousand miles off. Washington leaped for;*^ard, 
 and taking both his hands, besought him to publish these 
 views in a book. 
 
 Paine went to his room, seized his pen, lost sight of every 
 other object, toiled incessantly, and in December, 1775, the 
 work entitled Common Sense, which caused the Declaration 
 of Independence, and brought both people and their leaders 
 face to face with the work they had to accomplish, was sent 
 forth on its mission. " That book," says Dr. Rush, " burst 
 forth from the press with an effect that has been rarely 
 produced by types and paper, in any age or country." 
 
 '.' Have you seen the pamphlet. Gammon Sense ?" asked 
 Major General Lee, in a letter to Washington ; " I never saw 
 such a masterly, irresistible performance. It will, if I mistake 
 not, in concurrence with the transcendent folly and wicked- 
 ness of the ministry, give the coup-de-grace to Great Britain. 
 
PERIOD SECOND. ■" 15 
 
 In short, I own myself convinced by the arguments, of the 
 necessity of separation." 
 
 That idea of Independence the pen of Paine fed with fuel 
 from his brain when it was growing dim. We cannot over- 
 rate the electric power of that pen. At one time Washing- 
 ton thought that his troops, disheartened, almost naked, and 
 half starved, would entirely disband. But the Author-Hero 
 of the Revolution was tracking their mxirch and writing by 
 the light of camp-fires the series of essays called The Crisis. 
 And when the veterans who still clung to the glorious cause 
 they had espoused were called together, these words broke 
 forth upon them : " These are the times that try men's 
 souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in 
 this crisis, shrink from the service of his country ; but 
 he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and 
 woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered ; yet we 
 have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the 
 more glorious the triumph." 
 
 " These are the tii^ that try mens souls" was the watchword 
 at the battle of Trenton, and Washington himself set the pen 
 of Paine above any sword wielded that day. But we need 
 not dwell on the fact of Paine's service's and influence at this 
 eventful period. He stood the acknowledged leader of 
 American statemanship, and the soul of the American Revo- 
 lution, by the proclamation of the Legislatures of all the 
 States, and that of the Congress of the United States ; the 
 tribute of his greatest enemy was in these words : " The can- 
 non of Washington was not more formidable to the British 
 than the pen of the author of Commmi Sense." A little 
 less modesty, a little more preference of himself, to humanity, 
 and a good deal more of what ought to be common sense on 
 the part of the people he sought to free, and he would have 
 been President of the United States ; and America, instead 
 of France, would have had the merit of bestowing the highest 
 honor on the most deserving of mankind. 
 
 If Paine had been consulted to the extent he ought to have 
 been, by 'those who modeled the republic he was so instru- 
 mental in starting into existence, our social structure would 
 have been so founded, that it might have lasted till super- 
 seded by the immeasurably better one to which I shall 
 presently allude, and to which, as I shall show, his measures 
 aimed. It would not noiu depend upon a base so uncertain 
 that it has to be carefully shored up by such props as gibbets, 
 prisons, alms houses, and soup-dispensing committees, in order 
 
16 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 to prevent its being sapped by the hunger-driven slaves of 
 " free labor," nor would our Union be already in such danger 
 of falling to pieces, that the chords which bind it together are 
 as flimsy as cotton, and as rotten as are the souls of those 
 who expose both their religious and their political opinions 
 forsale as eagarly as they do their most damaged goods. 
 
 On the 17th of April, 1777, Congress elected Mr. Paine 
 secretary to the committee of foreign affairs. In this capa- 
 city, he stood in the same relation to the committee that the 
 English secretary for foreign affairs did to the cabinet ; and 
 it was not from vanity, but in order to preserve the dignity 
 of the new government under which he acted, that he claimed 
 the title which was bestowed on the British minister, who 
 performed a function corresponding to his own. 
 
 " The Crisis " is contained in sixteen numbers ; to notice 
 which, separately, would involve a history of the American 
 Eevolution itself. In fact, they comprise a truer history of 
 that event than does any professed history of it yet written. 
 They comprise the soul of it, of which everj professed history 
 is destitute. A disgrace which this country can never wipe 
 out. 
 
 In January, 1779, Paine resigned his secretariship, in 
 consequence of a misunderstanding which had taken place 
 between him and congress, on account of one Silas Deane. 
 
 In the early part of the war, it appears that Deane had 
 been employed as an agent in France, for the purpose of ob- 
 taining supplies, either as a loan from the French government, 
 or, if he failed in this, to purchase them. But before enter- 
 ing on the duties of his office. Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee 
 were added to the mission, and the three proceeded to Paris 
 for the same purpose. The French monarch, more perhaps 
 from his hostility to the English government, than from any 
 attachment to the American cause, acceded to the request ; 
 and the supplies were immediately furnished. As France 
 was then upon amicable terms with England, a pledge was 
 given by the American commissioners that the affair should 
 remain a secret. The supplies were accordingly shipped in 
 the name of a Mr. Beaumarchais, and consigned to an imagi- 
 nary house in the United States. Deane, .taking advantage 
 of the secresy which had been promised, presented a claim for 
 compensation in behalf of himself and Beaumarchais ; think- 
 ing that the auditing committee would prefer compliance to 
 an exposure of their ally, the king of France, to a rupture with 
 England. Mr. Paine, perceiving the trick, and knowing the 
 
PERIOD SECOND. 17 
 
 circumstances of the case, resolved on laying the transaction 
 before the public. He accordingly wrote for the newspapers 
 several essays, under the title of " Common Sense to the Pub- 
 lic on Mr. Deane's Affairs," in which he exposed the dis- 
 honest designs of Deane. The business, in consequence, soon 
 became a subject of general conversation : the demand was 
 rejected by the auditing committee, and Deane soon afterward 
 absconded to England, 
 
 For this piece of service to the Americans, Paine was 
 thanked and applauded by the people ; but by this time a 
 party had begun to form itself, whose principles, if not the 
 reverse of independence, were the reverse of republicanism. 
 These men had long envied the popularity of Paine, but from 
 their want of means to check or control it, they had hitherto 
 remained silent. An opportunity was liow offered for venting 
 their spleen. Mr. Paine, in exposing the trickery of Deane, 
 had incautiously mentioned one or two circumstances that 
 had come to his knowledge in conseqnence of his office ; this 
 was magnified into a breach of confidence, and 3; plan was 
 immediately formed for depriving him of his situation ; accor- 
 dingly, a motion was made • for an order to bring him before 
 congress. Mr. Paine readily attended ; and on being asked 
 whether the articles in question were written by him, he re- 
 plied that they were. He was then directed to withdraw. 
 As soon as he had left the house, a member arose and moved : 
 " That Thomas Paine be discharged from the oflSice of secre- 
 tary to the committee for foreign affairs ;" but the motion 
 was lost upon a division. Mr. Paine then wrote to congress, 
 requesting that he might be heard in his own defence, and 
 Mr. Lawrence made a motion for that purpose, which was 
 negatived. The next day he sent in his resignation, conclu- 
 ding with these words : " As I cannot, consistently with my 
 character as a freeman, submit to be censured unheard ; there- 
 fore, to preserve that character and maintain that right, I 
 think it my duty to resign the office of secretary to the com- 
 mittee for foreign affairs ; and I do hereby resign the 
 same." 
 
 This conduct on the part of congress may, in some degree, 
 be attributed to a desire to quiet the fears of the French am- 
 bassador, who had become very dissatisfied in consequence 
 of its being known to the world that the supplies were a 
 present from his master. To. silence his apprehensions, and 
 
 ? reserve the friendship of the French court, they treated 
 'aine with ingratitude. This they acknowledged at a future 
 
18 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 period by a grant ; of which I shall have occasion to speak 
 in its proper place. 
 
 Paine was now deprived of the means of obtaining a live- 
 lihood ; and being averse to rendering his literary labors 
 subservient to his personal wants, he engaged himself as 
 clerk to Mr. Biddle, an attorney at Philadelphia. 
 
 The ingratitude of congress produced no change in Mr. 
 Paine's patriotism. On every occasion, he continued to dis- 
 play the same degree of independence and resolution, which 
 had first animated him in favor of the republican cause. He 
 had enlisted himself as a volunteer in the American cause ; 
 and he vindicated her rights under every change of circum- 
 stance, with unabated ardor. 
 
 In a communication made many years afterwards to 
 Cheetham, (who would have contradicted it, could he have 
 done so without stating what every one would immediately 
 know to be false,) he says : — 
 
 " I served in the army the whole of the ' time that tried 
 men's souls,' from the beginning to the end. 
 
 Soon after the declaration of independence, July 4, 1176, 
 congress recommended that a body of ten thousand men, to 
 be called the flying camp, because it was to act wherever ne- 
 cessary, should be formed from the militia and volunteers of 
 Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. I went with one divi- 
 sion from Pennsylvania, under General Roberdeau. We 
 were stationed at Perth Amboy, and afterward at Bergen ; 
 and when the time of the flying camp expired, and they went 
 home, r went to Fort Lee, and served as aid-de-camp to 
 Greene, who commanded at Fort Lee, and was with him 
 through the whole of the black times of that trying cam- 
 paign. 
 
 I began the first number of the '' Crisis," beginning with 
 the well-known expression, 'These are the times that try 
 men's souls', at Newark, upon the retreat from Fort Lee, and 
 continued writing it at every place we stopped at, and had it 
 printed at Philadelphia, the 19th of December, six days before 
 the taking the Hessians at Trenton, which, with the affair at 
 Princeton, the week after, put an end to the black times." 
 
 Soon after the resignation of his secretaryship, he was 
 chosen clerk of the legislature of Pennsylvania. This appoint- 
 ment is a proof that, though he had some enemies, he had 
 many friends; and that the malicious insinuations of the 
 former had not been able to weaken the attachment of the 
 latter. 
 
PERIOD SECOND. " 19 
 
 In February, 1781, Paine, at the earnest solicitation of 
 Colonel Laurens, accompanied him to France, on a mission 
 •which the former had himself set on foot, which was, to ob- 
 tain of the French government a loan of a million sterling 
 annually during the war. This mission was so much more 
 successful than they expected, that six millions of livres as a 
 present, and ten millions as a loan, was the result. They 
 sailed from Brest, at the beginning of June, and arrived at 
 Boston in August, having under their charge two millions 
 and a half in silver, and a ship and a brig laden with cloth- 
 ing and military stores. 
 
 Before going to France, as just narrated, Paine headed a 
 private subscription list, with the sum of five hundred dollars, 
 all the money he could raise ; and the nobleness of his con- 
 duct so stimulated the munificence of others, that the sub- 
 scriptions amoTtnted to the generous sum of three hundred 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 Soon after the war of Independence had been brought to 
 a successful termination, Mr. Paine returned to Bordentown, 
 in New Jersey, where he had a small property. Washing- 
 ton, rationally fearing that one so devoted and generous 
 might be in circumstances not the most flourishing, wrote to 
 him the following letter : — 
 
 RocKT Hill, Sept. 10, 1783. 
 
 I have learned, since I have been at this place, that you 
 are at Bordentown. Whether for the sake of retireinent or 
 economy, I know not. Be it for either, for both, or what- 
 ever it may, if you will come to this place and partake with 
 me, I shall be exceedingly happy to see you at it. 
 
 Your presence may remind congress of your past services 
 to this country ; and if it is in my power to impress them, 
 command my best exertions with freedom, as they will be 
 rendered cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of 
 the importance of your works, and who, with much pleasure, 
 subscribes himself. 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 G. Washington. 
 
 In 1785, congress, on the report of a committee consisting 
 of Mr. Gerry, Mr. Petit, and Mr. King, 
 
 Besolved, That the board of treasury take order for pay- 
 ing to Mr. Thomas Paine, the sum of three thousand dol- 
 lars. 
 
 This, however, was not a gratuity, although it took that 
 shape. It was but little if any more than was due Mr. Paine, 
 
20 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 in consequence of the depreciation of the continental money 
 in which his salary as secretary of the committee of foreign 
 affairs had been paid. 
 
 Mr. Paine had resolved not to make any application to 
 the congress on the score of his literary labors ; but he had 
 several friends in the provincial assemblies who were deter- 
 mined that his exertions should not pass unrewarded. 
 Through their influence, motions in his favor were brought 
 before the legislature of Pennsylvania and the assembly of 
 New York ; the former gave him £500, and the latter the 
 confiscated estate of a Mr. Frederick Devoe, a royalist. This 
 estate, situated at New Rochelle, consisting of more than 
 three hundred acres of land in a high state of cultivation, 
 with a spacious and elegant stone-house, beside extensive out- 
 buildings, was a valuable acquisition ; and the readiness with 
 which it was granted, is a proof of the high estimation in 
 which Mr. Paine's services M-ere held by one of the mo^t opu- 
 lent and powerful states in the Union. 
 
 In 1786, he published at Philadelphia, his " Dissertations 
 on Government," "The Affairs of the Bank," and "Paper- 
 Money." The bank alluded to was the one which had been 
 established some years before, under the name of the " Bank 
 of North America," on the capital of the three hundred thou- 
 sand pounds, which resulted from the subscription which 
 Paine headed with five hundred dollars, as has already been 
 stated ; which bank, instead of being what banks now are, — 
 the stimulants of a gambling credit system, and a ruinous im- 
 porting system, had been of vast use to the cause of our na- 
 tional independence. Paine advocated a paper currency when 
 it was of use, instead of being an abuse ; in his days it helped 
 to secure national independence, instead of subjecting the 
 country, as it now does, to a servitude to the interests of Eng- 
 land, which could she have foreseen, it is questionable whether 
 even British pride would not have so succumbed to British 
 avarice, that not a gun would have been fired, or a sword 
 drawn against us. England could have afforded to pay us 
 as many pounds for subjecting ourselves as we have done to 
 her interests, as it cost her pennies to vainly attempt to pre- 
 vent us from doing this. It is highly worthy of remark, that 
 Paine opposed giving even the Independence promoting Bank 
 of North America, a. perpetual charter. 
 
 At this time Mr. Paine was highly popular, and enjoyed 
 the esteem and friendship of the most literary, scientific, and 
 patriotic men of the age 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 
 
 1787—1809. 
 
 Me. Paine gobs to Eueope. His Retoldtionaht Move- 
 ments IN England. Is elected a Member op the 
 National Assembly op Feance. Takes an 
 
 ACTIVE PART IN THE PeENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 His Death. 
 
 The success which had crownefl Mr. Paine's exertions in 
 America, made him resolve to try the effects of his influence 
 in the very citadel of the foes of liberal principles in govern- 
 ment, whose out-posts he had stormed. As America no 
 longer needed his aid, he resolved to attack the English 
 government at home ; to free England herself. 
 
 Accordingly, in April, 1787, he sailed from the United 
 States for France, and arrived in Paris after a short passage. 
 His knowledge of mechanics and natural philosophy had 
 procured him the honor of being admitted a member of the 
 American Philosophical society ; he was also admitted Mas- 
 ter of Arts by the university of Philadelphia. These honors, 
 though not of much consequence in themselves, were the 
 means of introducing him to some of the most scientific men 
 in France, and soon after his arrival he exhibited to the 
 Academy of Sciences, the model of an iron bridge which had 
 occupied much of his leisure time during his residence in 
 America. This model received the unqualified approbation 
 of the Academy, and it was afterwards adopted by the most 
 scientific men of England. 
 
 Prom Paris Mr. Paine proceeded to London, where he ar- 
 rived on the third of September. Before the end of that 
 month he went to Thetford to see his mother, who was now 
 borne down by age, and was, besides, in very straightened 
 circumstances. His father, it appears, had died during his 
 
22 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 absence ; and he hastened to the place of his birth to relieve 
 the -wants of his surviving parent. He led a recluse sort of 
 life at Thetford for several weeks, being principally occupied 
 in writing a pamphlet on the state of the nation, under the 
 title of " Prospects on the Rubicon." This was published in 
 London, toward the end of the year 1787. 
 
 During, the year 1788, Mr. Paine was principally occupied 
 in building his bridge. For this purpose he went to Rother- 
 ham in Yorkshire, in order that he might have an opportu- 
 nity of superintending its iron castings. 
 
 The situation of Prance had now become of great interest 
 to all Europe, and Mr. Paine was in the confidence of the chief 
 actors in the great events which were there taking place, and 
 he hastened again to Paris to witness and assist in the down- 
 fall of Bourbon despotism ; to act his part in the great drama 
 of freedom, the scene of which had shifted from the land of 
 Washington to the country of Lafayette. 
 
 The French are peculiarly sensitive to the shafts of 
 ridicule ; and Voltaire,* taking a wise advantage of this, had 
 made such good use of his exquisite wit, that both priestcraft 
 and statecraft had become rather absurd than respectable in the 
 estimation of the higher orders of those who held both their 
 wealth and their positions under such patronage. 
 
 The writings of the Abbe Raynal had imbued the French 
 with respect for the natural rights of humanity, and conse- 
 quently with contempt and abhorrence for the vested rights 
 of tyrants ; and the writings of that great apostle of liberty, 
 Rousseau, had long been preparing the way, in France, for what 
 those of Paine had effected in America ; in fact, Rousseau 
 was the " author hero" of the French Revolution ; and it 
 was more owing to his pen, than to anything else, that the 
 views of the people of France so differed from those of their 
 rulers, that, whilst the latter, in assisting America to throw 
 off the British yoke, looked no further than the weakening 
 and humiliating of England, the former approved of, and 
 sustained the measure, as initiatory to the destruction of 
 monarchy itself. 
 
 The return from America, of the troops of Lafayette, had 
 furnished a vast reinforcement to the popular cause, and in- 
 fused its principles throughout all France. Mr. Paine 
 lemarks, that — 
 
 * That Encyclopedia of wit and wisdom, Voltair's " Philosophical Dic- 
 ticinary,'' is published by Mr. J. P. Mendum, at the office of the " Hostou 
 Investigator." 
 
Jean. J'acqju^s. Stnu&seau. 
 
PERIOD THIRD. S3 
 
 " As it was impossible to separate the military events 
 which took place in America from the principles of the 
 American revolution, the publication of those events in France 
 necessarily connected themselves virith the principles that pro- 
 duced them. Hany of the facts were in themselves principles ; 
 such as the Declaration of American Independence, and the 
 treaty of alliance between France and America, which 
 recognized the natural rights of man, and justiiied resistance 
 to oppression." 
 
 This is the proper place to show that neither Paine, Rous- 
 seau, nor Voltaire are at all chargeable with the abomina- 
 tions which have been perpetrated, both in America and 
 France, in the name of liberty ; and that our " scurvy politi- 
 cians " have no more business to spout their impudent clap- 
 trap in the name of the principles advocated by the author of 
 " The Rights of Man," than Marat, St. Just, and Robespierre, 
 had to mouth Rousseau. Nothing is plainer, than that the 
 two great moving minds in the American and French revolu- 
 tions aimed at the practical actucdization of liberty. 
 
 Had Rousseau awoke from the dead at the time of the 
 French Revolution, — " What 1" he would have exclaimed. 
 " Do you take carnage to be what I meant by the state of na- 
 ture? "Miscreants!" Paine would thunder in the ears of 
 our rulers, were he now to visit the land over which the star- 
 spangled banner waves. " Is elective franchise to end in ma- 
 jority-despotism and spoils? Do you think I meant caucus 
 trickery, election frauds, office gambling, corruption, — in short, 
 demagogism, when I said free government ? 
 
 Are my teachings to be estimated from the stand-point 
 where 'tis difficult, if not impossible to determine whether 
 " free laborers " or " slaves " have the most nncomfortable 
 time of it ? In the name of " Common Sense," I protest against 
 your gross misrepresentation of me. The contemptible knave 
 and fool game which you are playing in the name of liberty, 
 is but the back step of the forward one towards freedom, 
 which I helped mankind to take. 
 
 Call you your miserable hotch-potch of spent supernatural- 
 ism and worn out absolutism, what I meant by freedom ? 
 You might as well call a rotting heap of building materials, 
 which some architect, whose skill was far in advance of his 
 time, had not lived long enough to put together according to 
 his design, the edifice which he intended. 
 
24 LIFE CF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Ye infidels* who meanly and hypocritically sneak for 
 patronage under the shreds and tatters of the worn out cloak 
 of the church, or who quit the ranks of superstition, only to 
 waste your energies over an old book which I completely 
 emasculated, (but lived to discover that I had mistaken a 
 prominent symptom for the disease I sought to cure ;) or to 
 dispute and wrangle over mere speculative abstractions, or 
 at most, to eat and drink and dance, and talk in memory of 
 me, every twenty-ninth of January, when it does not fall on a 
 Sunday. In calling on my name, and looking backward in 
 unavailing admiration of what I did, instead of pushing 
 ahead and carrying on the work which I began, you confer 
 no more honor on me than modern Christians do on their 
 " Jesus." You are no more like me, than papists and pro- 
 testants are the true followers of the Pharisee-condemning, 
 Sabbath-breaking son of the world-famous carpenter of 
 Galilee. 
 
 My religion was " to do good." Yours has thus far been 
 to do nothing or worse than nothing. 
 
 WJiy- do you not organize, and have your own schools,- in- 
 stead of allowing your children _tfiu£o.supeQmturalisticaIlj 
 educated ? , You allow the reasoning faculties oT'ffie'icions 
 oThumanity to be completely maimed, and then blame nature 
 because they are " vicious ;" or, like idiots holding candles 
 for the blind to read by, you ply them with reason, when they 
 arrive at the age when they ought to be reasonalale, but are 
 confirmed in folly instead. Has the freedom of the people 
 to chose their own teachers and head their own churches, 
 culminated in schools, the very hot-beds of superstition, and 
 in churches more intimately connected with, and more ex- 
 pensive to the state, sub rosa, than the Catholic church openly 
 is, even in Rome ? 
 
 Why do, yon not elevfi.te wnmn.n, iTistenri of letting your 
 daughters grow up under the influence of the priests ? Why 
 do you so stubbornly cling to that inmiaculate abortion ; that 
 most pestiferous effluvia of supernaturalism ; that quintes- 
 sence of malice ; that thickest fog that ever darkened the un- 
 derstanding ; that strong-hold of all that is arbitrary ; that 
 refinement of cruelty ; that last relic of absolutistic absurd- 
 ity, — moralism ? and why is its correlative, — opinionism 
 
 * I wish it to be particularly observed, that T give the term " infidels,'' 
 a much more extended sense than that which it is copularly supposed to con- 
 vey. 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 25 
 
 still the basis of your political system ? "Why are you, like 
 your opponents, still appealing to that most fallible of all 
 guides,— conscience ? And in the name of all that is intelli- 
 gible, what good is there in that chronic suicide which you 
 outdo even supernaturalists in lauding as virtue ? Besides, 
 has " virtue," notwithstanding all the pains taken with it, and 
 all the hot-house fostering that that plant has received, grown 
 a hair's breadth since the remotest ages ? 
 
 Why has not haw to, long since superseded ought to ? 
 
 Abandon, I beseech you, that inflicter of martyrdom ; 
 that watchword of Robespierre, and of the most relentless 
 tyrants that ever tortured humanity,— ^nmctpfe. Let the 
 science and art of goodness take its place. 
 
 The severest and most persistent scourges of the human 
 race are, and ever have been, men and women of principle. 
 Tim cannot be even bribed to do right. Robespierre was 
 par excellence, " the incorruptible ;" and so was Marat. 
 
 Principle, is the very bed of Procrustes. Principle is the 
 disguise in which the " angel of darkness " appears so like 
 an " angel of light," as to deceive, thus far, all but " the very 
 elect." It partially deceived even me. But I had not your 
 means of detecting the cheat. In my day it had not been, as 
 it recently has been, demonstrated that man's will, aided by 
 the force of all that is intelligible fully developed and har- 
 moniously, and most advantageously combined, is the meas- 
 ure of his power, and of nature's resources ; that well doing, 
 to any extent worth naming, requires nothing more, and 
 nothing less, than such force, such development, and such com- 
 bination ; that to progress, there is no obstruction, even to 
 the unfriendliness of climate, which is not, through human art, 
 working with, in, and through nature, removeable. 
 
 In my time, it had not been shown, (as it recently has 
 been, to a mathematical demonstration) that the only possi- 
 ble way to make people good, is to create the requisite mor 
 terialistic conditions ; and that therefore the most stupid of 
 blumders — the most infernal of cruelties ispunishment. 
 
 You affect to love science. Make it loveable. Raise i t 
 to the dignity of the highest law, or r eligion ; maTcelTJ^e 
 S asw^ govemrm nX; ana' flius avail yours n T ff^ llflitfl^fmT ?^ 
 ^ie71ifeteaa"'offfie'little benefit you H pi-jva frfim j^g " bflgggT-Ly 
 elements.^'" 
 
 "Patiently discover, instead of recklessly and vainly " en- 
 acting " laws ; scientifically develop, and artistically combine 
 the whole force of physical nature, nnd the whole power of 
 
26 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 man. Assist nature, -whose head you are, to create, till supply 
 is adequate to demand ; till creation is complete ; till har- 
 mony is in exact proportion to present antagonism ; till no 
 obstacle stands between man and perfect goodness, perfect 
 freedom, and perfect, and suflBciently lasting happiness. 
 Thus, alone, can you eliminate that synonym for ignorance, — 
 mystery — and its resulting " vice," " virtue," moralism, abso- 
 lutism, demagogism, slavery, and misery. 
 
 If you love, and would truly honor me, act forward , ac- 
 cording to the spirit, and not backward, according to^e let- 
 ter, of what I taught. Let onward to perfecHon, be your 
 motto. 'Sar" 
 
 Your numbers are sufficient, as you would see if you would 
 but stand out ; you are far from poor, on the average, and 
 you include nearly all the learned and scientific ; but you are 
 somehow or other so averse to organizing and becoming an 
 efficient body, with a head, that like the mutually suspicious 
 eighty-seven millions of Indians, to whom a few well regulated 
 British troops dictate terms, you suffer your even half organ- 
 ized foes to trample your rights under foot, when if you would 
 organize on an intelligible, TRULY selfish, scientific and ar- 
 tistic basis, your own rights, and those of all your fellow- 
 men would be secured. Down with t hat barricade of hi oo- 
 crisy,-— principle . Liberty, goodness, in short, happiness, can 
 be aothing less than the crowning art. 
 
 Instead of admitting, as you do, that nature ov/ght to have 
 a supernatural guardian or helper, (inasmuch as you admit 
 that she is incompetent to supply more than a tithe of the 
 satisfaction which her wants, as manifested through her high- 
 est organism, man call for,) why do you not meet the question, 
 as it alone can be met, by demonstrating that man no more 
 reaRy wants or needs absolutdy eternal self-consciousness, 
 than the infant reaUy wants or needs the moon for a bauble, 
 when he stretches forth his hand to grasp it, and weeps at his 
 failure. But that what man really does want, nature, through 
 science, art, devdopment, can give? Can't you see that what 
 man in reality means by perfect and " eternal " happiness, is, 
 perfect and siijfficiently-lasting happiness? and that nature 
 must furnish this, or prove a failure which would amount to 
 a greater absurdity, than " superruxturalism " itself? Do you 
 not see that for man to even desire any thing realty beyond 
 nature, is ia prove " supernaturalism." Mind, I have said de- 
 sire ; for man cannot conceive of, and therefore cannot de- 
 sire the annihilation of duration and space. He cannot really 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 27 
 
 wish for happiness without its conditions ; if it came merely 
 at his bidding, — if he could believe himself into Heaven, or 
 vote himself free, both Heaven and freedom would pall on the 
 appetite as soon as tasted. 
 
 Had I lived at the time when Humboldt scanned nature, 
 when Feuerbach demonstrated the naturalness of " supernatu- 
 ralism," and showed the all-importance and pracHcal signifi- 
 cancy of man's instinctively inaugurating his abstract subject- 
 ivity almighty, when Comte showed the connection, and 
 proved the unity of all science, when Fourier discovered the 
 equitable relations which should exist between labor, capital, 
 and skill, and which, sooner or later, must displace the pres- 
 ent unnatural and ruinous ones ; had I lived when, it had 
 been demonstrated that nature is all sufiScient ; that science, 
 art, — devdopment, well prove adequate to all the require- 
 ments of miracle ; ' that the highest aspirations of nature's 
 highest organism, man, indicate the perfection to which na- 
 ture is spontaneously tending, and which she must attain to ; 
 that' the business of man is to discover how to fully gratify, 
 aU the passions which nature has implanted in him ; (instead 
 of trying to contrive how to mortify, repress, and overcome 
 nearly all, and by far the best of them,) how to live, till he 
 has rung, so to speak, all the changes possible on his five 
 senses, till the repetition becomes irksome ; had I enjoyed 
 the advantages derivable from all this, your steam engines, 
 steam printing presses, sewing machines, and all other ma- 
 chines, and your electric telegraph, even, should have had its 
 match in social science and art ; jou should, by this time, 
 have had a religion sdf evidently true, and a system of law 
 necessarily just ; and the whole world should have been far 
 advanced towards becoming a state spontaneously free." 
 
 Reader, considering how very far ahead of his time, it 
 was the distinguishing characteristic of the author of the 
 " Rights of Man" and " The Age of Reason" to be, is it too 
 much to suppose that, were he alive now, he would talk thus, 
 except far more eloquently, beyond all question? Would 
 not he who made but two steps from the government of 
 priests, kings and lords, to the people's right to be their own 
 church and their own government, have found out, before 
 now, the means of escaping from demagogism ? As one who 
 is not prepared to admit that liberty is an empty name, that 
 happiness at all answering to that which man desires, is an 
 impractibility, I respectfully submit that he would. And I 
 scorn the supposition that he would degrade himself, and the 
 
28 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 cause ne espoused," so far as to make the pitiable and lying 
 excuse which the betrayers of mankind oflfer in behalf of 
 " free institutions," — that they are no worse than those, to 
 escape from which, both earth and ocean have been reddened 
 with human blood, and strewn with the ashes and the wrecks 
 of human industry. Our " free institutions " have come to be 
 so much worse than those confessedly despotic, that it is only 
 the superior natural advantage, which our country enjoys, 
 that has thus far preserved even their name. 
 
 The proper or natural functions of popularism are but 
 ., transitional. The instant it is undertaken to erect democracy 
 into a permanency, it dwindles to a most pitiable imitation — 
 to a blundering re-enacting, under false names, of the worn 
 out measures of the religion and politics, from which it is le- 
 gitimately but a protest and a departure. It thus becomes so 
 exceedingly corrupt and morbific, that the social organism, 
 to protect itself from utter dissolution, is forced to reject it, 
 and return again under its old regime. And nothing short 
 of the religion and government of science can furnish an out- 
 let from this vicious circle. 
 „^ Mr. Paine again left Prance for England, in Nov. 1790, 
 having witnessed the destruction of the Bastile, and been an 
 attentive observer, if not an active adviser, of the revolution- 
 ary proceedings which had taken place during the preceding 
 twelve months. 
 
 On the 13th of March, 1791, Mr. Jordan, No. 166 Pleetr 
 . street, published for him the first part of " The Rights of 
 idan." This work was intended to arouse the people of Eng- 
 land to a sense of the defects and abuses of their vaunted 
 system of government ; besides which, it was a masterly re- 
 futation of the falsehoods and exaggerations of Edmund 
 Burke's celebrated "Reflections on The Revolution in 
 France." 
 
 About the middle of May, Mr. Paine again went to 
 France. This was just before the king attempted to escape 
 from his own dominions. On the occasion of the return of the 
 fugitive monarch, Mr. Paine wag, from an accidental circum- 
 stance, in considerable danger of losing his life. An immense 
 concourse of people had assembled to witness the event. 
 Among the crowd was Mr. Paine. An officer proclaimed 
 the order of the national assembly, that all should be silent 
 and covered. In an instant all except Mr. Paine, put on 
 their hats. He had lost his cockade, the emblem of liberty 
 and equality. The multitude observing that he remained 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 29 
 
 uncovered, supposed that he was one of their enemies, and a 
 cry instantly arose, 'Aristocrat ! Aristocrat I & la lanterirve 1 
 d. la lanterne !' He was instructed by those who stood near 
 him to put on his hat, but it was some time before the matter 
 could be satisfactorily explained to the multitude. 
 
 On the 13th of July, 1791, he returned to London, but 
 it was not thought prudent that he should attend the public 
 celebration of the French revolution, which was to take place 
 on the following day. He was however, present at the meet- 
 ing which was held at the Thatched-House tavern, on the 
 twentieth of August following. Of the address and declara- 
 tion which issued from this meeting, and which was at first 
 attributed to Mr. Horn Tooke, Mr. Paine was the author. 
 
 Mr. Paine was now engaged in preparing the second part 
 of the ' Rights of Man' for the press. In the mean time the 
 ministry had received information that the work would 
 shortly appear, and they resolved to get it suppressed if pos- 
 sible. Having ascertained the name of the printer, they 
 employed him to endeavor to purchase the copyright. He 
 began by offering a hundred guineas, then five hundred, and 
 at length a thousand ; but Mr. Paine told him, that he ' would 
 never put it in the power of any printer or publisher to 
 suppress or alter a work of his.' 
 
 Finding that Mr. Paine was not to be bribed, the ministry 
 next attempted to suppress the work by means of prosecutions ; 
 but even in this they succeeded so badly, that the second part 
 of the " Rights of Man" was published on the sixteenth of 
 February, 1792, and at a moderate calculation, more than a 
 hundred thousand copies of the work were circulated. 
 
 In August, 1792, Paine prepared a publication in defense 
 of the " Rights of Man," and of his motives in writing it ; he 
 entitled it " An Address to the Addressers on the late Proc- 
 lamation." "This," says Sherwin, "is one of the severest 
 pieces of satire that ever issued from the press." 
 
 About the middle of September, 1792, a French deputa- 
 tion announced to Mr. Paine that he had been elected to re- 
 present the department of Calais in the National Convention. 
 
 At Dover, whither he repaired, in order to embark for 
 France, the treatment of the minions of British despotism 
 towards the hated author of the " Rights of Man," was dis- 
 graceful and mean to the last degree. His trunks were all 
 opened, and the contents examined. Some of his papers were 
 seized, and it is probable that the whole would have been, 
 but for the cool and steady conduct of their owner and his 
 
30 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 attendants. When the custom-house officers had indulged their 
 petty malice as long as they thought proper, Mr. Paine and his 
 friends were allowed to embark, and they arrived at Calais in 
 about three hours. The English-French representative, how- ■ 
 ever, very narrowly escaped the vigilance of the despots he had 
 provoked, for it appears that an order to detain him was re- 
 ceived at Dover, in about twenty minutes after his embarkation. 
 A salute from the battery announced to the people of 
 Calais the arrival of the distinguished foreigner, on whom 
 they had bestowed an honor unprecedented. 
 
 His reception, both military and civic, was what a mon- 
 arch might well have been proud of. " The garrison at 
 Calais were under arms to receive this friend of liberty ; the 
 tri-colored cockade was presented to him by the mayor, and 
 the handsomest woman in the town was selected to place it 
 on his hat."* 
 
 This ceremony being over, he walked to Deissein's in the 
 Rne de VEgalite (formerly Buc de Boi), the men, women, and 
 children, crowding around him, and shouting ' Five Thomas 
 Paine 1' He was then conducted to the town-hall, and there 
 presented to the municipality, who with the greatest affection 
 embraced their representative. The mayor addressed him in 
 a short speech, (which was interpreted to him by his friend 
 M. Audibert), to which Mr. Paine, laying his hand on his 
 heart, replied, that his life should be devoted to their service. 
 At the inn he was waited upon by the authorities, and by 
 the president of the Constitutional society, who desired that 
 he would attend their meeting that night : he cheerfully com- 
 plied with the request, and the whole town would have been 
 there, had there been room : the hall of the ' Minimes' was so 
 crowded that it was with the greatest difficulty they made way 
 for Mr. Paine to the side of the president. Over the chair in 
 which he sat were placed the bust of Mirabeau, and the colors of 
 France, England, and America united. A speaker from the 
 tribune, formally announced his election, amid the plaudits of 
 the people ; for some minutes after nothing was heard but 
 
 * The least unfair view of Thomas Paine's character and merits which 
 has hitherto been found in the .historical writings of any American author 
 except Randall, Savage, and Vale, (who quotes copiously from Sherwin), 
 is taken by an ecclesiastic, Francis L. Huwkes, D.JL)., L.L.U. His ■' Cy- 
 clopedia of Biography," from which 1 have quoted above, is published by 
 the iSleasrs. D. Appleton & Co., who also publish Buckle's " History of 
 Civilization in England ;" a work which would have fully satisfied the author 
 of the "Age of Reason" himself, had he lived to read it. 
 
PERIOD THIRD 31 
 
 ' Vive la Miction / Five Thomas Paine, in voices both male 
 and female. 
 
 On the following day an extra meeting was appointed to 
 be held in the church in honor of the new deputy to the con- 
 vention, the Minimes having been found quite suffocating, 
 from the vast concourse of people which had assembled, on 
 the previous occasion. At the theatre, on the evening after 
 his arrival, a box was specially reserved for the ciuthor of the 
 " Rights of Man," the object of the English proclamation. 
 
 Such was the enthusiasm of the people for the " author- 
 hero" of the American Revolution, that Mr. Paine was also 
 elected deputy for Abbeville, Beauvais, and Versailles ; but 
 the people of Calais having been beforehand in their choice, 
 he preferred being their representative. 
 
 After remaining with his constituents a short time, he 
 proceeded to Paris, in order to take his seat as a member of 
 the National Assembly. On the road thither he met with 
 similar honors to those which he had received at Calais. As 
 soon as he arrived at Paris, he addressed a letter to his fel- 
 low-citizens, the people of Prance, thanking them for both 
 adopting and electing him as their deputy to the convention. 
 
 Mr. Paine was shortly after his arrival in Paris, appointed 
 a member of the committee for framing the new constitution. 
 While he was performing the important duties of his station,- 
 the ministry of England were using every effort to counteract 
 the (to them) dangerous principles which he had disseminated. 
 For this purpose they filed informations against the different 
 individuals who had sold the "Rights of Man," and also 
 against the author. The trial of Mr. Paine came on at 
 Guildhall, on the 18 th of December, before that most cruel 
 and vindictive of creatures that ever disgraced the bench of 
 even a British court of justice. Lord Kenyon. As the judge 
 was pensioned, and the jury packed, a verdict of guilty follow- 
 ed as a matter of course. 
 
 Mr. Erskine's plea for the defence was, as Mr. Paine 
 observed, on reading a report of the farce which had been 
 enacted under the name of a trial, " a good speech for himself, 
 but a very poor defence of the " Rights of Man"* 
 
 Seldom has the cowardice which a sense of guilt excites, 
 reached such a panic as that into which the government of 
 
 * " Paine's work,",[the " Rights of Man,"] says Schlosser, in his " History of 
 The Eighteenth Century," " made as great and as lasting an impression on 
 certain classes in England as Burke's did upon the great majority of the 
 higher and middle ranks." 
 
32 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 England was thrown by Thomas Paine. In France he was 
 safe from their malice, but no less than ten individuals were 
 prosecuted for selling his works, and by corrupted judges and 
 packed juries, nine of the number were convicted, and severely 
 fined or imprisoned, or both. 
 
 " On the first appearance of the " Rights of Man," says 
 Sherwin, the ministry saw that it inculcated truths which they 
 could not controvert; that it contained plans, which, if 
 adopted, would benefit at least nine tenths of the community, 
 and that its principles were the reverse of the existing sys- 
 tem of government ; they therefore judged that the most 
 politic method would be to treat the work with contempt, 
 to represent it as a foolish and insignificant, performance, 
 unworthy of their notice, and undeserving the attention 
 of the public. But they soon found the inefficiency of this 
 mode of treatment ; the more contempt they showed, the 
 more the book was read, and approved of. Finding, there- 
 fore, that their declarations of contempt were as unsuccessful 
 as their project of buying up the work, they determined upon 
 prosecuting the author and publisher. Mr. Paine was not at 
 all surprised at this resolution of the ministry ; indeed, 
 he had anticipated it on the publication of the second part 
 of the work, and to remove any doubt as to his intention of 
 defending the principles which he had so effectually incul- 
 cated, he addressed the following letter to his publisher : — 
 
 Fbbeuaey 16, 1792. 
 
 Sib : Should any person, under the sanction of any kind of 
 authority, inquire of you respecting the author and publisher 
 of the " Rights of Man," you will please to mention me as the 
 author and publisher of that work, and show to such person 
 this letter. I will, as soon as I am made acquainted with it, 
 appear and answer for the work personally. 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 Thomas Paine. 
 
 Mr. Jordan, 
 No. 166 Fleet Street. 
 
 " The first intimation which Mr. Paine received," continues 
 Sherwin, " of the intentions of the ministry, was on the 14th 
 of May, 1792. He was then at Bromly,in Kent, upon which 
 he came immediately to town ; on his arrival he found that 
 Mr. Jordan had that evening been served with a summons to 
 appear at the court of King's Bench on the Monday following, 
 but for what purpose was not stated. Conceiving it to be on 
 
PERIOD THIEI). 33 
 
 account of the work, he appointed a meeting with Mr. Jordan, 
 on the next morning, when he provided a solicitor, and toolt 
 the expense of the defence on himself. But Mr. Jordan, 
 it appears, had too much regard for his person to hazard its 
 safety on the event of a prosecution, and he compromised the 
 affair with a solicitor of the treasury, by agreeing to appear 
 in court and plead guilty. This arrangement answered the 
 purpose of both parties— That of Jordan in liberating himself 
 from the risk of a prosecution, and that of the ministry, since 
 his plea of guilty amounted in some measure to a condemna- 
 tion of the work." 
 
 The following letter from Mr. Paine to the Attorney-Gen- 
 eral, Sir Archibald, Macdonald shows, that but for the circum- 
 stance of his being called to France, as just related, it was 
 his intention to have formally defended himself in the 
 prosecution against him as author of the " Rights of Man." 
 
 " Sir : though I have some reason for believing that you 
 were not the original promoter or encourager of the prosecu- 
 tion commenced against the work entitled " Rights of Man," 
 either as that prosecution is intended to affect the author, the 
 publisher, or the public^; yet as you appear the official person 
 therein, I address this letter to you, not as Sir Archibald 
 Macdonald, but as attorney-general. 
 
 You began by a prosecution against the publisher, Jordan, 
 and the reason assigned by Mr. Secretary Dundas, in the 
 house of commons, in the debate on the proclamation. May 25, 
 for taking that measure, was, he said, because Mr. Paine 
 could not be found, or words to that effect. Mr. Paine, sir, 
 so far from secreting himself, never went a step out of 
 his way, nor in the least instance varied from his usual 
 conduct, to avoid any measure you might choose to adopt 
 with respect to him. It is on the purity of his heart, and the 
 universal utility of the principles and plans which his writings 
 contain, that he rests the issue ; and he will not dishonor it 
 by any kind of subterfuge. The apartments which he occu- 
 pied at the time of writing the work last winter, he has con- 
 tinued to occupy to the present hour, and the solicitors of the 
 prosecution know where to find him ; of which there is 
 a proof in their own office as far back as the ^st of May, 
 and also in the office of my own attorney. 
 
 But admitting, for the sake of the case, that the reason 
 for proceeding against the publisher was, as Mr. Dundas 
 stated, that Mr. Paine could not be found, that reason can 
 now exist no longer. * 
 
34 LIFE OP 'rnoMAS paine. 
 
 The instant that I was informed that an information was 
 preparing to be filed against me, as the author of, I believe, 
 one of the most useful books ever offered to mankind, I 
 directed my attorney to put in an appearance ; and as I 
 shall meet the prosecution fully and fairly, and with a good 
 and upright conscience, I have a right to expect that no act 
 of littleness, will be made use of on the part of the prosecu- 
 tio n toward influencing the future issue with respect ' to the 
 author. This expression may, perhaps, appear obscure to 
 you, but I am in the possession of some matters which serve 
 to show that the action against the publisher is not intended 
 to be a real action. If, therefore, any persons concerned in 
 the prosecution have found their cause so weak as to make it 
 appear convenient to them to enter into a negociation with 
 the publisher, whether for the purpose of his submitting to a 
 verdict, and to make use of the verdict so obtained as a cir- 
 cumstance, by way of precedent, on a future trial against my- 
 self ; or for any other purpose not fully made known to me ; 
 if, I say, I have cause to suspect this to be the case, I shall 
 most certainly T\ithdraw the defence I should otherwise have 
 made, or promoted, on his (the publisher's) behalf, and leave 
 the negotiators to themselves, and shall reserve the whole 
 of the defence for the reed trial. 
 
 But, sir, for the purpose of conducting this matter with at 
 least that appearance of fairness and openness that shall just- 
 ify itself before the public whose cause it really is (for it is 
 the right of public discussion and investigation that is 
 questioned), I have to propose to you to cease the prosecu- 
 tion against the publisher ; and as the reason or pretext can 
 no longer exist for continuing it against him because Mr. 
 Paine could not be found, that you would direct the whole 
 process against me, with whom the prosecuting party will not 
 find it possible to enter into any private negociation. 
 
 I will do the cause full justice, as well for the sake of the 
 nation, as for my own reputation. 
 
 Another reason for discontinuing the process against the 
 publisher is, because it can amount to nothing. First, be- 
 cause a jury in London cannot decide upon the fact of 
 publishing beyond the limits of the jurisdiction of London, 
 and therefore the work maybe republished over and over again 
 in every county in the nation and every case must have 
 a separate process ; and by the time that three or four hun- 
 dred prosecutions have been had, the eyes of the nation will 
 then be fully open to see that the work in question contains 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 35 
 
 a plan the best calculated to root out all the abuses of govern- 
 ment, and to lessen the taxes of the nation upwards of six 
 miUions annually. 
 
 Secondly, because though the gentlemen of London may 
 be very expert in understanding their particular professions 
 and occupations, and how to make business contracts with 
 government beneficial to themselves as individuals, the rest 
 of the nation may not be disposed to consider them sufficiently 
 qualified nor authorized to determine for the whole nation 
 on plans of reform, and on systems and principles of govern- 
 ment. This would be in effect to erect a jury into a national 
 convention, instead of electing a convention, and to lay a 
 precedent for the probable tyranny of juries, under the pre- 
 tence of supporting their rights. 
 
 That the possibility always exists of packing juries will 
 not be denied ; and, therefore, in all cases where government 
 is the prosecutor, more especially in those where the right of 
 public discussion and investigation of principles and systems 
 of government is attempted to be suppressed by a verdict, or 
 in those where the object of the work that is prosecuted is 
 the reform of abuse and the abolition of sinecure places and 
 pensions, in all these cases the verdict of a jury will itself 
 become a subject of discussion ; and therefore, it furnishes an 
 additional reason for discontinuing the prosecution against 
 the publisher, .more especially as it is not a secret that there 
 has been a negociation with him for secret purposes, and for 
 pr-oceeding against me only. I shall make a much stronger 
 defence than what I believe the treasury solicitor's agreement 
 with him will permit him to do. 
 
 I believe that Mr. Burke, finding himself defeated, and not 
 being able to make any answer to the " Rights of Man," has 
 been one of the promoters of this prosecution ; and I shall 
 return the compliment to him by showing, in a future publi- 
 cation, that he has been a masked pensioner at fifteen hundred 
 pounds per annum for about ten years. 
 
 Thus it is that the public money is wasted, and the dread 
 of public investigation is produced. 
 
 I am, sir. 
 
 Your obedient humble servant, 
 Thomas Paine. 
 
 Sir a Macdonald, Attorney-General. 
 
 On the 25th of July, 1792, the Duke of Brunswick issued 
 
36 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 his sanguinary manifesto, in which he declared that the allies 
 ■were resolved to inflict the most dreadful punishments on the 
 national assembly, for their treatment of the royal family ; 
 he even went so far as to threaten to give up Paris to mili- 
 tary execution. This made the people furious, and drove 
 them to deeds of desperation. A party was consequently 
 formed in the convention for putting the king to death. Mr. 
 Paine labored hard to prevent matters from being carried to 
 this extremity, but though his efforts produced a few converts 
 to his doctrine, the majority of his colleagues were too en- 
 naged at the duplicity of the king, and the detestable conduct 
 of the foreign monarchs, with whom he was leagued, to be 
 satisfied with anything short of the most dreadful vengeance. 
 The conduct of Louis was too reprehensible to be passed over 
 unnoticed, and Mr. Paine therefore voted that he should be 
 tried ; but when the question whether he should be put to 
 death, was brought forward, he opposed it by every argu- 
 ment in his power. His exertions were, however, ineffectual, 
 and sentence of death was passed, though by a very small ma- 
 jority. Mr. Paine lost no opportunity of protesting against 
 this extreme measure ; when the question, whether the sen- 
 tence should be carried into execution, was discussed, he 
 combated the proposition with gi;eat energy. As he was not 
 well versed in the French language, he wrote or spoke in Eng- 
 lish, which one of the secretaries translated. 
 
 It is evident that his reasoning was thought very persua- 
 sive, since those who had heard the speeches of Buzot, Con- 
 dorcet, and Brissot, on the same side of the question, without 
 interruption, broke out in murmurs, while Paine's opinion 
 was being translated ; and Marat, at length, losing all pa- 
 tience, exclaimed that Paine was a quaker, whose mind was 
 so contracted by the narrow principles of his religion, that 
 he was incapable of the liberality that was requisite for con- 
 demning men to death. This shrewd argument not being 
 thought convincing, the secretary continued to read, that ' the 
 execution of the sentence, instead of an act of justice, would 
 appear to all the world, and particularly to their allies, the 
 American States, as an act of vengeance, and that if he were 
 sufficiently master of the French language, he would, in the 
 name of his brethren of America, present a petition at their 
 bar against the execution of the sentence.' Marat and his 
 associates said that these could not possibly be the sentiments 
 of Thomas Paine, and that the assembly was imposed upon 
 
PERIOD THIRD. B7 
 
 by a false translation. On comparing it ■with the original, 
 however, it was found to be correct. 
 
 The only practical effect of Paine's leniency to the king 
 was that of rendering himself an object of hatred among the 
 most violent and now dominant actors in the revolution'. 
 They found that he could not be induced to participate in 
 their acts of cruelty ; they dreaded the opposition which he 
 might make to their sanguinary deeds, and they therefore 
 marked him out as a victim to be sacrificed the first oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 The humanity of Mr. Paine was, indeed, one of the most 
 prominent features in his character, and he exercised it, 
 whether on public or private occasions. Of his strict atten- 
 tion to his public duty in this respect, even at the hazard of 
 his own safety, we have just seen a convincing proof in his 
 opposition to the execution of the king ; and of his humane 
 and charitable disposition in private matters, the following 
 circumstances are sufficient to warrant the most unqualified 
 conclusion. 
 
 Mr. Paine was dining one day with about twenty friends, 
 at a coffee-house in the Palais Egalite, now the Palais Royal, 
 when, unfortunately for the harmony of the company, a cap- 
 tain in the English service contrived to introduce himself. 
 The military gentleman was a strenuous supporter of the 
 English system of government, and of course, a decided enemy 
 of the French Revolution. After the cloth was removed, the 
 conversation turned on the state of affairs in England, and 
 the means which had been adopted by the government to 
 check political knowledge. Mr. Paine gave his opinion very 
 freely, and much to the satisfaction of every one present, ex- 
 cept Captain Grimstone, who finding himself cornered, 
 answered his arguments by' calling him a traitor to his coun- 
 try, and applying to him other terms equally opprobious. 
 Mr. Paine treated his abuse with much good humor, which 
 rendered the captain so furious, that he struck him a violent 
 blow. But the cowardice of this behavior on the part of a 
 stout yoimg man, toward a person upward of sixty years of 
 age, was not the worst part of the affair. The captain had 
 struck a citizen deputy of the convention, which was an in- 
 sult to the whole nation ; the offender was hurried into cus- 
 tody, and it was with the greatest difficulty that Mr. Paine 
 prevented him from being massacred on the spot. 
 
 The convention had decreed the punishment of death to 
 any one who should be convicted of striking a deputy : Mr. 
 
38 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Paine was therefore placed in a very .unpleasant situation. 
 He immediately applied to Barrere, president of the commit- 
 tee of public safety, for a passport for his imprudent adver- 
 sary. His request being, after much hesitation, complied 
 with, he still had considerable difficulty in procuring his lib- 
 eration ; but even this was not all of which the nobility of 
 his nature was capable. The captain was without friends, 
 and penniless ; and Mr. Paine generously supplied him with 
 money to defray his travelling expenses, home to England. 
 
 A Major Munroe, who lodged at the same hotel with Mr. 
 Paine, and whose business it was to inform Pitt and the min- 
 istry of England, of what was going on in France, remaining 
 after the war was declared, was thrown into prison. He 
 applied to Mr. Paine, who, by great exertion, procured his 
 release. 
 
 The reign of terror had now fairly begun, and Mr. Paine's 
 humane disposition conspicuously marked him for one of its 
 victims. 
 
 In allusion to the dreadful proceedings which were making 
 such havoc among the best patriots of France, he says : — 
 
 ' As for myself, I used to find some relief by walking alone 
 in the garden after it was dark, and cursing with hearty good 
 will the authors of that terrible system that had turned the 
 character of the revolution I had been proud to defend. 
 
 I went but little to the convention, and then only to make 
 my appearance ; because I found it impossible for me to join 
 in their tremendous decrees, and useless and dangerous to 
 oppose them. My having voted and spoken extensively, more 
 so than any other member, against the execution of the king, 
 had already fixed a mark upon me : neither dared any of my 
 associates in the convention to translate, and speak in French 
 for me anything I might have dared to write. Pen and ink 
 were then of no use to me. No good could be done by 
 writing, and no printer dared to print ; and whatever I 
 might have written for my private amusement, as anecdotes 
 of the times, would have been continually exposed to be ex- 
 amined, and tortured into any meaning that the rage of party 
 might fix upon it ; and as to softer subjects, my heart was in 
 distress at the fate of my friends,, and my harp was hung 
 upon the weeping willows.' 
 
 But the gentle, conciliating, and open manner of Mr. 
 Paine rendered it impossible to impeach his political conduct, 
 and this was the reason why "he remained so long at liberty. 
 The first attempt that was made against him, was by means 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 39 
 
 of an act of the convention, which decreed that all persons 
 residing in France, who were born in England, shSnld be 
 imprisoned ; but as Mr. Paine was a member of the conven- 
 tion, and had been adopted a ' citizen of France/ the decree 
 did not extend to him. A motion was afterward made by 
 Bourdon de I'Oise, for expelling all foreigners from the con- 
 vention. It was evident from the speech of the mover, that 
 Mr. Paine was the principal object aimed at, and as soon as 
 the expulsion was effected, an application was made to the 
 two committees of public safety, of which Robespierre was 
 the dictator, and he was immediately arrested under the for- 
 mer decree for imprisoning persons born in England. On 
 his way to the Luxembourg, he contrived to call upon his in- 
 timate friend and associate, Joel Barlow, with whom he left 
 the manuscript of the first part of the "Age of Reason." 
 This work he intended to be the last of his life, but the pro- 
 ceedings in France, during the year 1793, induced him to de- 
 lay it no longer. 
 
 At the time when the " Age of Reason " was written, 
 Mr. Paine was in daily expectation of being sent to the 
 guillotine, where many of his friends had already perished ; 
 the doctrines, therefore, which it inculcates, must be regarded 
 as the sentiments of a dying man. This is a conclusive proof 
 that the work was-not the result of a wish to deceive. Mr. 
 Paine had measured his time with such precision, that he had 
 not finished the book more than six hours, before he was ar- 
 rested and conveyed to the Luxembourg. 
 
 Had such a singularly favorable coincidence as this hap- 
 pened in the transactions of a Christian theological writer, 
 it would undoubtedly have been ascribed to the interposition 
 of Divine Providence. 
 
 After Mr. Paine had remained in prison about three weeks, 
 the Americans residing in Paris, went in a body to the con- 
 vention and demanded the liberation of their fellow-citizen. 
 The following is a copy of the address presented by them to 
 the president of the convention ; an address which sufficiently 
 shows the high estimation in which Mr. Paine was at this 
 time held by the citizens of the United States : — 
 
 " Citizens! The French nation had invited the most 
 illustrious of all foreign nations to the honor of representing 
 her. 
 
 Thomas Paine, the apostle of liberty in Americar, a pro- 
 found and valuable philosopher, a virtuous and esteemed citi- 
 zen, came to France and took a seat among you. Particular 
 
40 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 circumstances rendered necessary the decree to put under ar- 
 rest all the English residing in France. 
 
 Citizens I Representatives ! We come to demand of you 
 Thomas Paine, in the name of the friends of liberty, and in 
 the name of the Americans, your brothers and allies ; was 
 there anything more wanted to obtain our demand we would 
 tell you. Do not give to the leagued despots the pleasure of 
 seeing Paine' in irons. We inform you that the seals put 
 upon the papers of Thomas Paine have been taken off, that 
 the committee of general safety examined them, and far from 
 finding among them any dangerous 'propositions, they only 
 found the love of liberty which characterized him all his life- 
 time, that eloquence of nature and philosophy which made 
 him the friend of mankind, and those principles of public 
 morality which merited the hatred of kings, and the affection 
 of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 In short, citizens 1 if you permit us to restore Thomas 
 Paine to the embraces of his fellow-citizens, we offer to pledge 
 ourselves as securities for his conduct during the short time 
 he shall remain in France.' 
 
 The Americans who presented the foregoing address, re- 
 ceived for answer, that ' Mr. Paine was born in England,' 
 and it was also hinted to them that their attempt to reclaim 
 him as a citizen of the United States, conld not be listened 
 to, in consequence of its not being authorized hy the American 
 government. 
 
 I wish the reader to particularly note what I have here 
 italicised, as I shall hereafter refer to it in a very important 
 connection. 
 
 Soon after this, all communication between the prisoners 
 and their friends was cut off, by an order of the police ; and 
 the only hope that during six months, remained to Mr. Paine, 
 Was, that the American minister would be authorized to in- 
 quire into the cause of his imprisonment. ' But even this 
 hope,' Mr. Paine observes, ' in the state in which matters were 
 daily arriving, was too remote to have any consolatory effect ; 
 and I contented myself with the thought that I might be re- 
 membered when it would be too late.' 
 
 During this long imprisonment he amused himself by 
 writing a variety of pieces, both in poetry and prose, some 
 of which have since been published. He also wrote a con- 
 siderable portion of the second part of the ' Age of Reason.' 
 
 When he had been in prison about eight months, he was 
 seized with a violent fever, which nearly deprived him of 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 41 
 
 life, and from the effects of which he never perfectly re- 
 covered. This fever, which rendered him insensible for more 
 than a month, was, however, the means of preserving his life ; 
 for had he remained in health, he would no doubt have been 
 dragged before the tribunal, and sent to the guillotine. 
 
 After the fall of Robespierre, Mr. Paine, seeing several 
 of his fellow-prisoners set at liberty, began to conceive hopes 
 of his own release, and addressed a memorial to Mr. Monroe, 
 the American minister, on the subject. 
 
 The following is a copy of Mr. Monroe's letter to Mr. 
 Paine on this occasion : — 
 
 Paris, September 18, 1794. 
 " Dear Sir : 
 I was favored, soon after my arrival here, with several 
 letters from you, and more latterly Vi ith one in the character 
 of a memorial upon the subject of your confinement : and 
 should have answered them at the times they were respec- 
 tively written, had I not concluded, you would have calcula- 
 ted with certainty upon the deep interest I take in your wel- 
 fare, and the pleasure with which I shall embrace every op- 
 portunity in my power to serve you. I should still pursue 
 the same course, and for reasons which must obviously occur, 
 if I did not find that you are disquieted with apprehensions 
 upon interesting points, and which justice to you and our 
 country equally forbid you should entertain. You mention 
 that you have been informed you are not considered as an 
 American citizen by the Americans, and that you have lik&r 
 wise heard that I had no instructions respecting you by the 
 government. I doubt not the person who gave you the infor- 
 mation meant well, but I suspect he did not even convey 
 accurately his own ideas on the first point : for I presume the 
 most he could say is, that you had likewise become a French 
 citizen, and which by no means deprives you of being an 
 American one. Even this, however, may be doubted, I mean 
 the acquisition of citizenship in France, and I confess yon. 
 have said much to show that it has not been made. I really 
 suspect that this was all that the gentleman who wrote to you, 
 and those Americans he heard speak upon the subject, meant. 
 It becomes my duty, however, to declare to you, that I con- 
 sider you as an American citizen, and that you are considered 
 universally in that character by the people of America. As 
 such you are entitled to my attention ; and so far as it can be 
 given, consistentlv with those obligations which are mutual 
 
42 , LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 between every government and even transient passengers, you 
 shall receive it. 
 
 The congress have never decided upon the subject of citizen- 
 ship, in a manner to regard the present case. By being with 
 us through the revolution, you are of our country as abso- 
 lutely as if you had'been born there, and you are no more of 
 England than every native American is. This is the true 
 doctrine in the present case, so far as it becomes complicated 
 with any other consideration. I have mentioned it to make 
 you easy upon the only point which could give you any dis- 
 quietude. 
 
 It is necessary*for me to tell you, how much all yonr coun- 
 trymen — I speak of the great mass of the people — are inter- 
 ested in your welfare. They have not forgotten the history 
 of their own revolution, and the difficult scenes through which 
 they passed ; nor do they review its several stages without 
 reviving in their bosoms a due sensibility of the merits of 
 those who served them in that great and arduous conflict. 
 The crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust 
 never will stain, our national character. You are considered 
 by them, as not only having rendered important services in 
 our own revolution, but as being, on a more extensive scale, 
 the friend of human rights and a distinguished and able ad- 
 vocate in favor of public liberty. To the welfare of Thomas 
 Paine, the Americans are not, nor can they be, indifferent. 
 
 Of the sense which the president has always entertained 
 of your merits, and of his friendly disposition toward you, 
 you are too well assured, to require any declaration of it from 
 me. That I forward his wishes in seeking your safety is what 
 I well know : and tliis will form an additional obligation on 
 me to perform what I should otherwise consider as a duty. 
 
 You are in my opinion, at present, menaced by no kind of 
 danger. To liberate you will be an object of my endeavors, 
 and as soon as possible. But you must, until that event shall 
 be accomplished, bear your situation with patience and forti- 
 tude ; you will likewise have the justice to recollect, that I 
 am placed here upon a difficult theatre, many important 
 objects to attend to, and with few to consult. It becomes me 
 in pursuit of those, so to regulate my conduct with respect to 
 each, as to the manner and the time, as will, in my judgment, 
 be best calculated to accomplish the whole. 
 
 With great esteem and respect consider me personally 
 your friend. 
 
 James Monroe.' 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 43 
 
 Mr. Paine was released from prison on the 4th of Novem- 
 ber, 1794, having been in confinement for eleven months. 
 
 After his liberation, he was kindly invited to the house of 
 Mr. Monroe, where he remained for about eighteen months. 
 The following extract from one of his letters, written after 
 his return to America, is a highly interesting description of 
 his situation while in prison, and of another narrrow escape 
 which he had in addition to the one already noticed. 
 
 ' I was one of the nine members that composed the first 
 committee of constitution. Six of them have been destroyed. 
 Syeyes and myself have survived. He by bending with the 
 times, and I by not bending. The other survivor joined 
 Robespierre, and signed with him the warrant of my arrest- 
 ation. After the fall of Robespierre, he was seized and im- 
 prisoned in his turn, and sentenced to transportation. He 
 has since apologised to me for having signed the warrant," 
 by saying, he felt himself in danger and was obliged to do 
 it. 
 
 Herault Sechelles, an acquaintance of Mr. Jefferson, and 
 a good patriot, was my suppliant as member of the committee 
 of constitution ; that is, he was to supply my place, if I had 
 not accepted or had resigned, being next in number of votes to 
 me. He was imprisoned in the Luxenburg with -me, was 
 taken to the tribunal and the guillotine, and I, his principal, 
 was left. 
 
 There were 'but two foreigners in the convention, Ana- 
 charsis Cloots* and myself. We were both put out of the 
 convention by the same vote, arrested by the same order, and 
 catrried to prison together the same night. He was taken to 
 
 * " J. B. De Cloots, a Prussian Baron, known since the revolution by the 
 name of Arachj.rsis Cloots, was born at Cleves, on the 24th of June, 1755, 
 and became the possessor of a considerable fortune. 
 
 In September, 1792, he was deputed from the Gise to the Convention. 
 
 In the same year he published a work entitled " The Universal Republic," 
 wherein he laid it down as a principle ' that the people were the sovereign of 
 the world — nay, that it was God' — ' that fools alone believed in a Supreme 
 Being,' &c. He soon afterwards fell under the suspicions of Eobespierre, was 
 arrested as a Hebertist, and condemned to death on the 24th of March, 1794. 
 He died with great firmness, and on his way to execution lectured Hebert on 
 materialism, ' to prevent him' as he said, ' from yielding to religious feelings in 
 his last moments.' He even asked to be executed after all his accomplices, in 
 order that he might have time ' to establish certain principles during the fall 
 of their heads. — Biographie Moderne. 
 
 See, also, for a fuller account of Baron De Cloots, Thier's " Hislory of 
 the French Revolution." 
 
44 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 the guillotine, and I was again left. Joel Barlow was with 
 us when we went to prison. 
 
 Joseph Lebon, one of the vilest characters that ever 
 existed, and who made the streets of Arras run with blood, 
 was my suppliant as member of the convention for the de- 
 partment of the Pais de Calais. When I was put out of the 
 convention he came and took my place. When I was 
 liberated from prison, and voted again into the convention, 
 he was sent to the same prison and took my place there, and 
 he went to the guillotine instead of me. He supplied my 
 place all the way through. 
 
 One hundred and sixty-eight persons were taken out of 
 the Luxenbourg in one night, and a hundred and sixty of them 
 guillotined the next day, of which I know I was to have been 
 one ; and the manner in which I escaped that fate is curious, 
 and , has all the appearance of accident. 
 
 The room in which I was lodged was on the ground floor, 
 and one of a long range of rooms under a gallery, anff the 
 door of it opened outward and flat against the wall ; so that 
 when it was open the inside of the door appeared outward, 
 and the contrary when it was shut. I had three comrades, 
 fellow-prisoners with me, Joseph Vanhuile of Bruges, since 
 president of the municipality of that town, Michael Robins, 
 and Bastini of Louvain. 
 
 When persons by scores and hundreds were to be taken 
 out of prison for the guillotine, it was always done in the 
 night, and those who performed that office had a private 
 mark or signal by which they knew what rooms to go to, 
 and what number to take! We, as I have said, were four, 
 and the door of our room was marked unobserved by us, with 
 that number in chalk ; but it happened, if happening is 
 a proper word, that the mark was put on when the door was 
 Open and flat against the wall, and thereby came on the in- 
 side when we shut it at night, and the destroying angel passed 
 by it. A few days after this Robespierre fell, and the 
 American ambassador arrived and reclaimed me and ipvited 
 me to his house. 
 
 During the whole of my imprisonment, prior to the fall of 
 Robespierre, there was no time when I could think my life 
 worth twenty-four hours, and my mind was made up to meet 
 its fate. The Americans in Paris went in a body to the con- 
 vention to reclaim me, but without success. There was no 
 party among them with respect to me. My only hope then 
 rested on the government of America that it would remember 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 45 
 
 me. But the icy heart of ingratitude, in whatever man it 
 may be placed, has neither feeling nor sense of honor. 
 The letter of Mr. Jefferson has served to wipe away the re- 
 proach, and done justice to the mass of the people of America." 
 
 Soon after Mr. Paine's release, the convention, by a 
 unanimous vote, reinstated him in the seat he had formerly 
 occupied. Mr. Paine did not refuse, being resolved to show 
 that he was iiot to be terrified, and that his principles were 
 neither to be perverted by disgust nor weakened by misfortune. 
 
 His bodily health was very much impaired by his long 
 confinement, and in September following, he was taken 
 dangerously ill. He states that he had felt the approach of 
 his disorder for some time, which occasioned him to hasten 
 to a conclusion of the second part of Ihe " Age of Reason." 
 This work was published at Paris, early in 1795, and was 
 very shortly afterward reprinted both in England, and the 
 United States. 
 
 The " Age of Reason " called forth a great many replies, 
 but the only one whose fame has outlived its author, is the 
 Bishop of Llandaff's " Apology for the Bible." Even this is 
 in defiance of J;he plainest rules of reason and logic, and 
 would have shared the fate of its companions in the same 
 cause, if it had been written by an ordinary person. 
 
 The advocates of the Christian faith were themselves so 
 conscious of the imperfections of their system, and placed so 
 little reliance on the Bishop's arguments, that they commenced 
 a prosecution against Mr. Williams, the publisher of the 
 *' Age of Reason.' They retained Mr. Brskine on the part of 
 the crown, who made every effort to procure a verdict. Mr. 
 Kyd made an ingenious and able reply, in behalf of the de- 
 fendant, but the jury, being special, readily found him guilty, 
 June 4, 1797. Mr. Paine addressed a letter to Mr. Erskine 
 on the proceedings of this trial, in which he ridiculed the ab- 
 surdity of discussing theological subjects before such men as 
 special juries are generally composed of, and cited fresh evi- 
 dence in support of his former arguments against the truth of 
 the Bible. 
 
 But, although the anti-biblical works of Mr. Paine were 
 well able to withstand the Bishop of Llandaff's attacks, and 
 have unquestionably made a greater number of mere unbe- 
 lievers than have those of any other writer, they strongly^ re- 
 inind those who comprehend the all-important materialistic 
 significancy which underlies " supernaturalism," of the sug- 
 ■ gestions which their author so sensibly threw out, in his 
 
46 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 letter to Mr. Erskine, with respect to the abilities of juries 
 to deal with theological matters. 
 
 Paine himself took far less pride in his Theological writ- 
 ings, than in any of his others. This is too observable to 
 need to be pointed out in detail. He had comparatively such 
 small expectations with respect to the good which he be- 
 lieved he had the talents to perform by meddling with " su- 
 pernaturalism," that he postponed the execution "of that part 
 of his life's mission to the latter end of his career ; and it is 
 worthy of note, that in his will, he requested that it should be 
 engraved on his tomb-stone, not that he was the author of 
 " The Age of Reason," or of the " Examination of The Pro- 
 phecies ;" but of " Commrni Sense." 
 
 In the perfected, or even half regenerate future, the iauthor 
 • of " the world is my country ; to do good my religion," though 
 he had never written " Common Sense," " The Crisis," or 
 " Eights of Man ;" — nay, though he had never written another 
 line, will stand higher than will the ablest mere exposer and 
 denouncer of error and delusion, that ever handled a pen. 
 
 There is, it must be confessed, in Mr. Paine's treatment 
 of the great question involved in anthropomorphism, or " the- 
 ology," nothing of the profundity of Feuerbach, or of the 
 thoroughness, and searching and learned inquiry concerning 
 the mythical substructure of Christianity, which so eminently 
 distinguishes Strauss ; and there is but little of the careful 
 research of Volney, Dupuis and Robert Taylor,' in either the 
 " Age of Reason " or the " Examination of The Prophecies." 
 Their author is altogether too deficient in the bland and win- 
 ning persuasiveness of Greg, and has not an overstock of the 
 candour, and patient criticism of Macnaught. 
 
 For proof of this, compare Paine's theological master- 
 pieces, just named, with Strauss's " Critical Examination of 
 the Life of Jesus," Volney's " Ruins of Empires," and " New 
 Researches on Ancient History," Dupuis's " Origine de tons 
 les Cultes,"* Taylor's " Diegesis,"t " Astronomico-Theological 
 5;:v^ermons," and " Devil's Pulpit," Greg's " Creed of Christen- 
 :::^dom ; Its Foundations and Superstructure," Macnaught on 
 "The Doctrine of Inspiration," and that natural history of 
 " supernaturalism," — Feuerbach's " Essence of Christian- 
 ity.*^ 
 
 * Published by Mr. Gilbert Vale, 
 f Published by Mr. J. P. Mendum. 
 
 The other works here referred to, and also " The Age of Reason," and 
 " Examination of The Prophecies," arc published by C. Blauchard. 
 
PERIOD THIKD. 47 
 
 There is nothing like constructive revolution in Mr. 
 Paine's attacks on the ecclesiastical hierarchy which has been 
 notwithstanding its faults, and its now, and for some time 
 past, abominable abuses, the nurse of civilization — the initia- 
 tor of human progress. 
 
 But there is, in the effects of his attacks on venerable 
 abuses, that which is fast neccessitating constructive revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 Still, it is to be regretted that so many of those whom 
 Mr. Paine's caustic arguments put in more zealous than for- 
 midable battle array against priestcraft, run away with the 
 idea, so unjust and. humiliating to human nature, that the 
 whole gospel system was, from the beginning, but a nefarious 
 scheme of priests and kings, whereby to destroy liberty ; tllat 
 the Church has always been but a hypocritical and tyrajini- 
 cal organization. For in consequence of these views, they 
 think that they have found out all that need be known with 
 respect to the great question of man's instinctive faith; and 
 vainly imagine, that through the power of reason alone, all 
 the temples of superstition can be demolished, or shaved 
 down to common shool-houses ; and think that this will make 
 the world about as good as it is capable of becoming. 
 
 The plain truth is, that Mr. Paine's theological view? are 
 as superficial as his religious conceptions are profound. [It 
 will be recollected that " to do good," was Mr. Paine's reli- 
 gion.] His belief in a supernatural " God," in " happiness 
 after death," and in "some punishment for the wicked," 
 though immeasurably less atrocious than the Judaistic and 
 Paganistic Christianism which he combatted, are not a whit 
 more intelfigible ; and had " The Age of Reason " been writ- 
 ten by some sharp-witted magazine critic, instead of by the 
 author of " The Crisis," " Common Sense," and " Eights of 
 Man ;" — or by some obscure individual, instead of by the com- 
 panion of, and co-worker with, Washington, Jefferson, Frank- 
 lin, Adams, and Lafayette, its notoriety never would have 
 reached the height to which it immediately arose, and which, 
 owing to clerical persecution, and to the abominable injustice 
 and ingratitude with which Paine has been treated, it 
 will no doubt gain upon for some time to come. 
 
 But we must, in full justice to Thomas Paine, take into 
 account the fact, that his theology is susceptible of a very 
 liberal interpretation. I, too, materialist though I am,* 
 
 * Of all the Deistical works that I have examined, none appear to me 
 
48 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 believe m a God ; a God as infinite as is all of \»lncli we can 
 conceive ; ay, and as real ; a God as almighty as is materi- 
 ality ; which is at once both agent and act, and out of whose 
 presence we cannot go even in thought, will prove to be, 
 through that only intelligible miracle,T-de«^eZqpme?i^. 
 
 I believe, furthermore, in the punishment of the wicked ; 
 and that, too, after death. Nay, I know that the punishment 
 of aR sin is inevitable. Is not that monster of iniquity, so- 
 ciety, though dead and all but rotten in " trespasses and sins," 
 undergoing the very torments of the damned ? 
 
 I hope for, nay, I know that I shall have, happiness after 
 death; — that every particle of me will, through chemical 
 change, and the fe'finements which nature is with rapidly in- 
 creasing speed, elaborating, go to form material beings as 
 much happier than any which now exist, as " glorified saints 
 and angels " are imagined to be. 
 
 But Mr. Paine has won such laurels through his political 
 writings, that he can richly afi'ord to yield the palm with re- 
 spect to theology ; not that he has not, though negatively, 
 done good service, even in this field. His theological writ- 
 ings have cleared the way for the practical and positive in 
 social affairs, by showing that reason, or speculativeness, though 
 of importance in starting the march of human progress, is 
 utterly inefficient in the all important respects of the motive 
 and the creative power, necessary to speed that progress to 
 its goal. 
 
 The " Age of Reason " negatively prepared the way for 
 the introduction of science and art into social architecture ; 
 for the inauguration of the knowable, the practical, the hu- 
 mane the effmemt, in place of the mysterious, the speculative, 
 the vindictive, the provisional, and otherwise ahori/ive. 
 
 I know that these views will be somewhat distasteful to 
 many of Mr. Paine's admirers ; but I have undertaken to 
 give an impartial history, and therefore cannot let my own 
 admirfition or that of others for the great man I am writing 
 about, blind me to the great truth, that, till the perfection 
 point be gained, means, even those as powerful as Mr. Paine 
 
 to be less inconsistent t an the one by Henri Disdier, avocat, published at 
 Geneva, in 1859. His remarks on the clergy's great lever, education, ought 
 to b3 read by every reformer. The work is entitled—" Conciliation Ra- 
 tionnelle du Droit et du Devoir." It appears to me that M. Disdier has 
 omitted no argument that can be adduced to support the proposition that 
 there exists a •' Supernatural God," or " Dieu Personnel." 
 
PEEIOD THIRD. 49 
 
 used, must, as fast as they exhaust their efiScacy, be thrust aside 
 for those of greater and greater potency. 
 
 Opinionism has long since fulfilled its function in the so- 
 cial organism, and therefore cannot too soon he rejected, 
 along with its correlative, moralism, and that now main de- 
 pendence of Tice, — ^virtue. Principle has become an excre- 
 scence, and should be immediately expelled for enlightened 
 selfishness. Principle is the barricade behind which hypo- 
 crisy hides. It encumbers the path through which act^tgl 
 progress ought to have a free passage. •. 
 
 But to return to the thread of this history : — 
 
 In April, 1795, a committee was appointed to form an- 
 other new constitution, (the former- one having been abolished) 
 and the report of this committee w:as brought forward on the 
 23d of June following, by Boissy d' Anglais. • 
 
 In J795, Mr. Paine wrote a speech in opposition to sev- 
 eral of the articles of the new constitution which had been 
 presented for adoption, which was translated and read to the 
 convention by Citizen Lanthera, on the seventh of July. He 
 particularly contended against the unjust distinction that 
 was attempted to be made between direct and indirect taxes. 
 Whatever weight his objections ought to have carried, they 
 were not listened to by the convention, and the constitution 
 of Boissy d' Anglais was adopted. By this decree the conven- 
 tion was formally dissolved ; and as Mr. Paine was not after- 
 ward re-elected, it also terminated his public functions in 
 France. 
 
 The reign of terror* having somewhat subsided, Mr. 
 
 * Let me not be misundel'stood, in speaking as I have, and shall, of de- 
 magogues, priests, and " oppressors " generally. I by no means approve of 
 the avalanche of blame in which Eobespierre has been overwhelmed. He 
 and his colleagues were but the instruments of an-infuriated populace which 
 an unfortunate train. of circumstances had let loose upon those whom equally 
 unfortunate causes had made their oppressors. 
 
 It is highly worthy of attention, tiiat all the blood shed during the long 
 " infidel " "reign of terror," amounted to but little more than half what had 
 flown in a single day, (St. Bartholomew's) under the reign of siipernaturalis- 
 tic terror. The whole number guillotined by order of the Kevolutionary 
 tribunal was, 18. 603, viz :— Nobles, 1,278. Noble women, 750. Wives of 
 laborers and artisans, 1 ,467. Keligeuses, 350. Priests, 1,135. Common 
 persons, not noble, 13,623. 
 
 The lowest estimate of the number of victims of the St. Bartholomew 
 massacre, is 25.000 ; but there is every reason for supposing that the num- 
 ber was not less than 30,000. 
 
 In six weeks time, the supematuralistically misguided duke of Alva, in- 
 
 3 
 
50 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 Paine resumed his pen. About the time when he brought 
 out the second part of the " Age of Reason/' he published 
 several pamphlets on subjects less likely to inflame the pas- 
 sions of the bigoted and ignorant ; the principal of these are 
 his " Dissertation on first Principles of Government," " Agra- 
 rian Justice opposed to Agrarian Law," and the " Decline 
 and Fall of the English System of Finance." The first of 
 these is a continuation of the arguments advanced in the 
 " Rights of Man ;" the second is a plan for creating in every 
 country a national fund " to pay. to every person when ar- 
 rived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds 
 sterling, to enable him or her to begin the world, and also ten 
 pounds sterling, per annum, during life, to every person, now 
 living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others, when they 
 shall arrive at that age, to enable them to live without wretch- 
 edness, in old age, and to go decently out of the world." 
 
 In 1796, he published at Paris a " Letter to General Wash- 
 ington." The principal subject of this letter was the treaty 
 which had recently been concluded between the United States 
 and Great Britain. From the articles of the treaty, Mr. Paine 
 contends, that those who concluded it had compromised the 
 honor of America, and the safety of her commerce, from a 
 disposition to crouch to the British ministry. The cold neg- 
 lect of Washington toward Mr. Paine during his imprison- 
 ment, forms likewise a prominent subject of the letter, and 
 but for this circumstance, it is probable th'at it would never 
 have appeared. Notwithstanding the high opinion which 
 Washington professed to entertain of his services in behalf 
 of American independence, he abandoned him in a few years 
 afterward to the mercy of Robespierre, and during his im- 
 prisonment of eleven months, he never made an effort to re- 
 lease him. This was not the treatment which the author of 
 " The Crisis " deserved at the hands of Washington, either 
 as a private individual, or as president of the United States. 
 Exclusive of Mr. Paine's being a citizen of the United States, 
 and consequently entitled to the protection of its govern- 
 ment, he had rendered her services which none but the un- 
 grateful could forget ; he had therefore no reason to expect 
 that her chief magistrate would abandon him in the hour of 
 
 stigated the murder, for conscience sake^ of 18,000 people, in the small king- 
 dom of the Netherlands. 
 
 Is it not time that the murderous system of blame and punishment, to- 
 gether with their correlate, principle, was superseded ? 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 51 
 
 peril. However deserving pf our admiration some parts of 
 General Washington's conduct towards Mr. Paine may be, 
 his behaviour in this instance certainly reflects no honor upon 
 his character ; and we are utterly at a loss for an excuse 
 for it, on recollecting that when the American residents of 
 Paris demanded Paine's release, the answer of the convention 
 mainly was, that the demand could not be listened to 
 " in consequence of its not being authorized by the American 
 government." 
 
 Mr. Paine regarded the United States as his home ; and 
 although his spirit of universal philanthropy, his republican 
 principles, and his resolution in attacking fraud in politics 
 and superstition in religion, rendered him rather a citizen of 
 the world, than of any particular country, he had domestic 
 feelings and pivotal attachments. During his residence in Eu- 
 rope, he always declared his intention of returning to America ; 
 the following extract from a letter of his to a lady at New 
 York, will show the affectionate regard which he cherished 
 for the country whose affairs were the means of first launching 
 him into public life : — 
 
 ' You touch me on a very tender point, when you say, that 
 my friends on your side of the water cannot be reconciled to the 
 idea of my abandoning America even for my native England. 
 They are right. I had rather see my horse, Button, eating 
 the grass of Bordertown, or Morrissania, than see all the pomp 
 and show of Europe. 
 
 A thousand years hence, for I must indulge a few thoughts, 
 perhaps in less, America may be what England now is. The 
 innocence of her character, that won the hearts of all nations 
 in her favor, may sound like a romance, and her inimitable 
 virtue as if it had never been. The ruins of that liberty, 
 which thousands bled to obtain, may just furnish materials for 
 a village tale, or extort a sigh from rustic sensibility ; while 
 the fashionable of that day, enveloped in dissipation, shall 
 deride the principle and deny the fact. 
 
 When we contemplate the fall of empires, and the 
 extinction, of the nations of the ancient world, we see but 
 little more to excite our regret than the mouldering ruins of 
 pompous palaces, magnificent monuments, lofty pyramids, and 
 walls and towers of the most costly workmanship : but when 
 the empire of America shall fall, the subject for contemplative 
 sorrow will be infinitely greater than crumbling brass or 
 marble can inspire. It will not then be said. Here stood a 
 temple of vast antiquity, here rose a Babal of invisible height, 
 
52 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 or there a palace of sumptuous extravagance ; but here, ah I 
 painful thought 1 the noblest work of human wisdom, the 
 greatest scene of human glory, the fair cause of freedom, rose 
 and fell ! Read this, then ask if I forgot America.' 
 
 In 1797, a society was formed in Paris, under the title of 
 " Theophilanthropists." Of this society, Mr. Pajne was one 
 of the principal founders. More of this, anon. 
 
 This year Mr. Paine published a ' Letter to the People of 
 France, on the Events of the eighteenth Fructidor.' 
 
 About the middle of the same year he also wrote a letter 
 ■ to Camille Jordan, one of the council of five hundred, 
 respecting his report on the priests, public worship, and bells. 
 ' It is want of feeling,' says he, ' to talk of priests and bells, 
 while so many infants are perishing in the hospitals, and aged 
 and infirm poor in the streets from the want of necessaries. 
 The abundance that France produces is suflScient for every 
 want, if rightly applied ; but priests and bells, like articles 
 of luxury, ought to be the least articles of consideration.' 
 
 The publication of his deistical opinions lost Mr. Paine a 
 great number of his friends, and, it is possible, that this might 
 be one of the causes of General "Washington's indifference. 
 The clear, open, and bold manner in which he had exposed 
 the fallacy of long established opinions, called forth the in- 
 dignation of the whole order of priesthood both in England 
 and America, and there was scarcely a house of devotion 
 in either country, which did not ring with pious execrations 
 against the author of the " Age of Reason." The apostles of 
 superstition witnessed with amazement and terror the im- 
 mense circulation of the work, and trembled at the pos- 
 sibility that men might come to think for themselves.* 
 
 * The late Mr. George H. Evans, (one of the first movers of the land reform 
 question) was the first collector and publisher of Paine's Works in this 
 country ; and the late Frances Wright D'Arusmont rendered, and Mrs. E. L. 
 Rose is now rendering, most efficient aid in disseminating such views 
 of these works as the popular mind is capable of taking. 
 
 The constructive revolutionist must admire the stand she has so bravely 
 and ably taken with respect to woman's rights, however exceptionable some 
 of the measures she has advocated may be considered. 
 
 But there is no danger that the legitimate object of man's adora- 
 tion, — woman, can be drawn into that maelstrom of abomination, — cauous- 
 and-ballot-boxism, and if I mistake not, Mrs. Rose does not press the 
 extension of " elective franchise" to her sex quite as vigorously as she used 
 to. At all events, she is doing- good service to the cause of human emanci- 
 pation ; she has been a pioneer in a reform on which further progress im- 
 portantly depends ; for which she desel-ves the hearty " thanks of man and 
 woman." 
 
PERIOD THIliD. 53 
 
 On leaving the house of Mr. Monroe, Paine boarded 
 in the family of Nicholas Bonneville, a gentleman in good 
 circumstances, and editor of a political paper, the " Bouche de 
 Fer." 
 
 In 1797, the society of " Theophilanthropists" was formed 
 in Paris ; Men capable of any reflection began to see how 
 utterly monstrous was the attempt to dispense with religion 
 — ^with a universal higher law to which to appeal — with 
 something to satisfy, or at least prevent from being utterly 
 discouraged, the instinctive aspirations of the human heart. 
 Kobespierre objected to atheism as aristocratic ; but Paine 
 saw somewhat further than this, and Lar^villifere, a member 
 of the Directory, was impressed with the necessity of a sys- 
 tym which should rival the catholic church itself. The idea 
 was supremely great, and lacked only the Comtean conception 
 of science to make it a success. As it was, however, it proved 
 a worse failure than has even Christianism. Pure Deism is 
 not at all more intelligible than is that mixture of Deism, 
 Buddhism, Judaism, and Paganism, called Christianity; and 
 the cold moralism which is attached to the one God system, 
 the human heart instinctively abhors. Paine, and all the 
 other doctors of divinity with whom he was in unison, were 
 far behind even Mahomet, or Joe Smith, in respect to theo- 
 logy. 
 
 Haiiy, a brother of the eminent crystallogist, assembled the 
 first society of Theophilanthropists. They held their meet- 
 ings on Sunday, and had their manual of worship and hymn- 
 book. 
 
 R6bespierre had, three years before, given a magnificent 
 fete in honor of VEtre SwpreTne, and Paine now delivered a 
 discourse before one of the Theophilanthropist congregations, 
 
 Abner Kneland was, I believe, the first editor of the still only " openly 
 avowed InBdel paper" in the United States, — the Boston Investigator ; now 
 edited by Horace Seaver, Esq. 
 
 As to Theodore Parker, his exertions in the cause of free inquiry are of 
 world-wide notoriity ; and I will here mention that " The Evidences against 
 Christianity," by John S. Hittell, should be the hand-book of all those who 
 look to reason, free discnssion, and to an exposure of falsehood and error, for 
 the salvation of the human race. 
 
 The services which Mr. Joseph Barker has rendered the liberal cause will 
 not soon be forgotten. His debate with Dr. Berg floors Christianity to the 
 utmost that argumeni can. But I much prefer the valedictory letter which 
 he published in the " Investigator," previous to his departure for Europe. 
 Evidently, the writer is beginning to see that something more than mere 
 negativism is needed to put down superstition. 
 
54 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 in -which he attempted to blend science and '* supernaturalism." 
 That some parts of this discourse would have done honor 
 to an Orthodox divine, the following extracts will attest : — 
 " Do we want to contemplate His [God's] power ? We 
 see it in the immensity of the creation. Do we want to 
 contemplate His wisdom ? We see it in the unchangeable 
 order by which the incomprehensible whole is governed. Do 
 we want to contemplate His mercy ? We see it in His not 
 withholding His abundance even from the unthankful. In 
 fine, do we want to know what God is ? Search not written 
 books, but the Scriptures called the Creation." 
 
 The finale of the miserable political and religious farce 
 which had been played in France, was, that, in 1799, Bona- 
 parte sent a file of grenadiers to turn both the political and 
 theological quacks out of their halls ; and the sooner some 
 Bonaparte does the same thing in the United States, the 
 sooner will the cause of liberty be at least delivered from the 
 management of those who are insulting, disgracing, and 
 treacherously betraying it. 
 
 Whilst writing this, the two great parties of spoil-seekers 
 in the United States, have been caucusing for, and have at 
 length decided on, two individuals out of some thirty millions, 
 one of whom is to be demagogism's cat's-paw general for the 
 next four years. 
 
 The. qualifications of one of these candidates for the pres- 
 idential chair, consist in his having been a " farm-laborer, a 
 common workman in a saw-mill, and a boatman on the 
 Wabash and Mississippi rivers ;" a wood-chopper, a hunter, a 
 soldier in the Black Hawk war, a clerk in a store, and finally 
 a sham-law manufacturer and monger — a member of a Legis- 
 lature, and a lawyer. The qualifications of his opponent on 
 the political race-course, are probably about as different in 
 respect to value, from those just enumerated, as fiddlededum 
 is from fiddlededee. 
 
 Those convenient tools of both parties, those chessmen 
 with which the political game is played — The People, how- 
 ever, have great expectations of reform from whichever 
 candidate they vote {they vote ! do they ? Faugh !) for, pro- 
 vided he is elected. But mark me well, my dear fellow-sufi'cr- 
 ers ; you, and all, except about one in fifty or a hundred of ''.c 
 of&ce-seekers whose thievish fingers itch for the pubhu 
 treasury, are destined to utter, and most woeful dispoini- 
 ment. Still, I neither hlame the demagogues nor your- 
 selves. In the concluding sentences of this history, I shall 
 
PERIOD THIRD. S5 
 
 tell you where the fault lies ; for I hope, that the political 
 scamps who, in this country, are making the name of freedom 
 a scorn and a derision throughout the rest of the world, will 
 be eliminated by those who will make liberty an actuality. 
 How this may be done, I claim to have demonstrated in " The 
 Religion of Science," and " Essence of Science." 
 
 Throughout Paine's political writings, notwithstanding 
 their popularistic dressings, there runs a tone entirely con- 
 demnatory of demagogism, and highly suggestive of social 
 science and art. And there is no question but that the 
 miserable abortion in which the liberty-agitation seemed to 
 terminate in France, and the failing aspect which it took on 
 in America, even in his day, all but " burst his mighty heart," 
 and made him somewhat careless, though far from slovenly, 
 with respect to his person. 
 
 Paine's opposition to the atheists, on the one hand, and to 
 the cruelty of those who, headed by Robespierre, had instituted 
 the worship of the " Supreme Being," on the other, had 
 gradually rendered him unpopular in Prance. His remittances 
 from the United States not being very regular, M. Bonneville 
 added generosity to the nobleness which he, considering the 
 circuTristances displayed, in opening his door to Mr. Paine, 
 by leading him money whenever he wanted it. 
 
 This kindness, Paine had soon both the opportunity and 
 the means of reciprocating ; for majority absolutism Itod now 
 become so unbearably despotic, so exceedingly moHgc to 
 the social organism in Prance, that to save civiliza^o 6ven 
 from destruction, Bonaparte had to be invested with supreme 
 power in the State, and the nominally free press of M. Bon- 
 neville was consequently stopped. 
 
 Mr. Paine's liberty mission in Prance, having now evi- 
 dently failed, [always remembering that nothing in nature is 
 an absdute failure — that progress is the constant rule and the 
 seeming contrary but an aberration] he at once resolved to 
 return to the United States, where he offered an asylum to 
 M. Bonneville and family ; in consequence of which, Madame 
 Bonneville and her three sons soon left Paris for New York. 
 
 Owing to some cause or other, but not to the one which 
 Paine's slanderers were afterwards mulcted in dan, ages, even 
 in a Christian court of Justice, for assigning, M. Bonne- 
 ville did not accompany them. The eldest son returned to 
 his father, in Paris ; but Mr. Paine amply provided for the 
 maintenance of Madame Bonneville and her two sons who 
 remained in America. 
 
56 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 At Paris, sucq personages as the Earl of Lauderdale, Dr. 
 Moore, Brissot, the Marquis de Chatelet le Roi, General Mi- 
 randa, Capt. Imlay, Joel Barlow, Mr. and Mrs. Stone, and 
 Mary WoUstonecraft,* sought the honor of Mr. Paine's com- 
 pany. • 
 
 That Mr. Paine's eloquence and power of reasoning were 
 unsurpassed even by Cicero, Demosthenes or Daniel Webster, 
 his political writings fully attest. 
 
 Before it became known who wrote " Common Sense," it 
 was by some attributed to Dr. Franklin ; others insisted that 
 it was by that elegant writer of English, — John Adams.t 
 
 " It has been very generally propagated through the con- 
 tinent," says Mr. Adams, " that I wrote this pamphlet.*** I 
 could not have written any thing in so manly and striking a 
 • style." This eulogy, be it remembered, was pronounced by 
 one who was so jealous of Paine's credit in the matter of the 
 Declaration of Independence, that, says Randall, in his Life 
 of Thomas Jefferson, he " spares no occasion to underrate 
 Paine's services, and to assault his opinions and character."! 
 
 Mr. Randall continues : — 
 
 " A more effective popular appeal [than ' Common Sense'] 
 never went to the bosoms of a nation. Its tone, its manner, 
 its biblical illusions, its avoidance of all openly impassioned 
 appeals to feeling, and its unanswerable common sense were 
 exquiafcly adapted to the great audience to which it was 
 
 luigpel: 
 
 horess of " A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, with Stric- 
 tures on Political and Moral Subjects." A work, the exceeding merit of 
 which has been lost sight of, in its name, since woman's rights have been 
 claimed to consist In' the liberty to degrade herself to the level of the politi- 
 cian. 
 
 ■j- That that great patriot, John Adams, and many other revolutionary 
 worthies vaguely entertained the idea of Independence before " Common 
 Sense " was published, there can be no doubt. But the question is, who 
 had the courage to first propose the thing, and in a practical shape ? That 
 Mr. Adam's prudence predominated over his courage, great as that 
 was, is further deducible from the strong reason there was for Ihe inference 
 that his religious opinions, if openly expressed, would have appeared as far 
 from the orthodox standard, as were those of Paine. See Randall's Life of 
 Jefferson, on this point. 
 
 X I have before called the attention of the reader to the fact that Rous- 
 seau was, like Paine, an " author hero ;" his writings were prominently the 
 text of the French Revolution. I will further remark, that whoever drew 
 up the " Declaration of Independence," has given indisputable evidence of 
 havingwell studied the " Control Social" of theauthor of the "world-famous" 
 '• Confessions." 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 57 
 
 addressed ; and calm investigation will satisfy the historical 
 student, that its effect in preparing the popular mind for the 
 Declaration of Independence, exceeded *bat of any other 
 paper, speech, or document made to favor it, and it would 
 scarcely be exaggeration to add, than all other such means 
 put together." 
 
 " No writer," says Thomas Jefferson, " has exceeded Paine 
 in ease and familiarity of style, in perspicuity of expression, 
 happiness of elucidation, and in simple and unassuming 
 language." 
 
 Says General Washington, in a letter to Joseph Reed, 
 (Jan. 31, 1776) ; " A few more such flaming arguments as 
 were exhibited at Falmouth and Norfolk, added to the sound 
 doctrine and 'unanswerable reasoning contained in the pam- 
 phlet " Common Sense,' will not leave numbers at a loss to de- 
 cide on the propriety of a separation." 
 
 That Paine possessed a very superior degree of mechanical 
 skill, his model for iron-bridges, abundantly proves. That 
 his genius for poetry lacked but cultivating, I think will suffi- 
 ciently appear from the following little effusion, extracted 
 from his correspondence with a lady, afterwards the wife of 
 Sir Robert Smith : — 
 
 TROM " THE CASTLE IN THE AIR," TO THE " LITTLE COBNER OF' THE 
 WORLD." 
 
 In the region of clouds where the whirlwinds arise, 
 
 My castle of fancy was built ; 
 The turrets reflected the blue of the skies, 
 
 And the windows with sun-beams were gilt. 
 
 The rainbow sometimes, in its beautiful state, 
 
 Enamelled the mansion around, 
 And the figures that fancy in clouds can create, 
 
 Supplied me with gardens and ground. 
 
 I had grottoes and fountains and orange tree groves, 
 
 I had all that enchantment has told ; 
 I had sweet shady walks for the gods and their loves, 
 
 I had mountains of coral and gold. 
 
58 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 Bat a storm that I felt not, had risen and rolled, 
 
 While wrapt in a slumber I lay : 
 And when I looked out in the morning, behold I 
 
 My castle was carried away. 
 
 It passed over rivers, and valleys, and groves — 
 
 The world, it was all in my view — 
 I thought of my friends, of their fates, of their loves, 
 
 And often, full often, of you. 
 
 At length it came over a beautiful scene. 
 
 That nature in silence had made : 
 The place was but small — but 't was sweetly serene, 
 
 And chequered with sunshine and shade. 
 
 I gazed and I envied with painful good will, 
 
 And grew tired of my seat in the air : 
 When all of a sudden my castle stood still. 
 
 As if some attraction was there. 
 
 Like a lark from the sky it came fluttering down, 
 
 And placed me exactly in view — 
 When who should I meet, in this charming retreat, 
 
 This corner of calmness — ^but you. 
 
 Delighted to find you in honor and ease, 
 
 I felt no more sorrow nor pain ; 
 And the wind coming fair, I ascended the breeze. 
 
 And went back with my castle again.' 
 
 On the subject of the simplicity of Mr. Paine's habits, and 
 his general amiability, his friend Clio Eickman remarks ': 
 
 " He usually rose about seven, breakfasted with his friend 
 Ghoppin, Johnson, and two or three other Englishmen, and a 
 Monsieur La Borde, who had been an officer in the ci-devant 
 garde du corps, an intolerable aristocrat, but whose skill in 
 mechanics and geometry brought on a friendship between him 
 and Paine ; for the undaunted and distinguished ability and 
 firmness with which he ever defended his own opinions when 
 controverted, do not reflect higher honor upon him than that 
 unbounded liberality toward the opinion of others which con- 
 stituted such a prominent feature in his character, and which 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 59 
 
 never suffered mere difference of sentiment, whether political 
 or religious, to interrupt the harmonious intercourse of 
 friendship, or impede the interchanges of knowledge and in- 
 formation. 
 
 After breakfast he usually strayed an hour or two in the 
 garden, where he one morning pointed out the kind of spider 
 whose web furnished him with the first idea of constructing 
 his iron bridge ; a fine model of which, in mahogany, is pre- 
 served at Paris. 
 
 The little happy circle who lived with him here will ever 
 remember these days with delight : with these select friends 
 he would talk of his boyish days, play at chess, whist, piquet, 
 or cribbage, and enliven the moments by many interesting 
 anecdotes : with these he would sport on the broad and fine 
 gravel walk at the upper end of the garden, and then retire 
 to his boudoir, where he was up to his knees in letters and 
 papers of various descriptions. Here he remained till dinner- 
 time ; and unless he visited Brissot's family, or some particu- 
 lar friend in the evening, which was his frequent custom, he 
 joined again the society of his favorites and fellow-boarders, 
 with whom his conversation was often witty and cheerful, 
 always acute and improving, but never frivolous. 
 
 •Incorrupt, straightforward, and sincere, he pursued his 
 political course in France, as everywhere else, let the govern- 
 ment or clamor or faction of the day be what it might, with 
 firmness, with clearness, and without a " shadow of turn- 
 ing." 
 
 In all Mr. Paine's inquiries and conversations he evinced 
 the strongest attachment to the investigation of truth, and was 
 always for going to the fountain-head for information. He 
 often lamented we had no good history of America, and that 
 the letters written by Columbus, the early navigators, and 
 others, to the Spanish court, were inaccessible, and that many 
 valuable documents, collected by Philip II., and deposited with 
 the national archives at Simanca, had not yet been promulga- 
 ted. He used to speak highly of the sentimental parts of Ray- 
 nal's History." 
 
 Of- course, Mr. Paine did not escape the imputation of 
 being " immoral." The cry of " immorality " and " licen- 
 tiousness " has been raised against every one who has ever 
 proposed a social system different from the prevailing one, 
 from the timeof him who preferred harlotry to phariseeism, to 
 that of Charles Fourier. • 
 
 Luther no more escaped the accusation of being a sensua- 
 
60 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 list, than did Thomas Paine ; and had not Milton written 
 " Paradise Lost," and professed the " orthodox " religion, his 
 " Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce " would have placed him 
 on the same historical page with those reformers Dr. T. L. 
 Nichols, Dr. E. Lazarus, and Stephen Pearl Andrews.* 
 
 Paine did not, as we have .seen, live with his wife ; but if 
 he refrained from sexual intercourse, it must have been be- 
 cause he was afraid of what the world might say, (a suppo- 
 sition too absurd, in his case, to be entertained for a moment) 
 or because he had little taste for amorous pleasures ; or, 
 lastly, because he wanted to show the world that liberalism 
 was such a matter of moon-shine, that it was not even inimi- 
 
 * The first of these gentlemen favored mankind with " Esoteric Antbra, 
 pology," and "Marriage; Its History," ,&c. The second is the author of 
 " Love vs. Marriage ;" and the third took the free love side of the question 
 in the famous discussion on Marriage and Divorce between himself and the 
 Hon. Horace Greeley, and is author of " The Science of Society," and several 
 other progressive works, and of an admirable system of instruction in the 
 French language. 
 
 It is difficult to see how a person of Mr. Greeley's understanding could 
 have taken the side he did in the controversy jast alluded to, and also in the 
 renewal of that controversy between himself and the Hon. Eobert Dale 
 Owen. 
 
 That monogamy, like polygamy, /ita scjTjeti a useful purpose, every one 
 capable of tracing progress, can of course see ; but how such an one can fail 
 to perceive that these institutions have about equally become worn out, and 
 morbific to the social organism, both in Western Europe and the United 
 States, is to me somewhat mysterious. Are not those crowning curses, (ex- 
 cepting, of course, demagogism) prostitution, and pauperism, alarmingly on 
 the increase? And does not the former flourish most, where the chords of 
 matrimony are drawn the tightest? 
 
 But the fact that Mr. Greeley magnanimously opened the columns of 
 " The Tribune " to the other side of the question, shows that he ha,d full confi- 
 dence in the arguments on his side, and this ought to dispel all doubts as to 
 his sincerity, and the uprightness of his intention. It is only hypocrites 
 or downright fools, who wish to have truth, with respect to religious or so- 
 cial questions, suppressed. 
 
 Still, I respectfully ask you, Mr. Editor of " The New York Tribune," — did 
 you during your visit to Mormondom, observe any part of Salt Lake City, 
 in which humanity touched a lower depth than that to which it sinks in our 
 Five Points, and in the vicinity of the junction of Water- and Roosevelt- 
 streets ? And do you really think, that even in the harem of Brigham Young, 
 female degradation is greater than in the New York pataces of harlotry? 
 En passant, one of these has just been fitted up, the furniture alone in which 
 cost thirty thousand dnllars/ Yet New York is almost the only State in 
 the Union, wherein exists what Mr. Greeley considers orthodox marriage- 
 marriage, from the bonds of which there is no escape, except througli the 
 door of aaual adultery,^atural death, or murder ; often by poison, but 
 generally through the infliction of mental agony .' 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 61 
 
 cal to what a religious system which upholds crucifixion and 
 self-denial, palms of on its dupes for " virtue ;" that liberal- 
 ism has no virtue of its own, and therefore has to borrow and 
 adopt that the very basis of which is supernaturalistic self- 
 enslavement ; that free-thinking is a mere speculative, im- 
 practicable, abstract sort of freedom, which it would not be 
 " virtuous " to accompany by free acting ; that liberty, even 
 in the most important particular, (as all physiologists know) 
 is but a mere figment of the imagination, over which to de- 
 bate or hold free discussions ; or, at most, to write songs, 
 plays, and novels about. 
 
 But what is most worthy of remark in this connection is, 
 that had the discoverer of the steam-engine, or of the electrical 
 telegraph been a very Rochester, or Caesar Borgia,^ the cir- 
 cumstance would not have been mentioned as an objection to 
 a steam-boat passage, or to a telegraphic dispatch ; and only 
 when sociology is rescued from the wild regions of the specu- 
 lative and becomes an art, will it have a rule of its own ; a 
 rule which will free aU the natural passions from the shackles 
 of ignorance of how to henefidaUy gratify them. 
 
 For a reason which will presently appear, I shall now 
 call the readers attention, to the letter of Joel Barlow, writ- 
 ten in answer to one from that vilest of slanderers and rene- 
 gades, — James Cheetham. This letter was written to obtain 
 information ; nay, not information, but what might be tor- 
 tured into appearing such, with a view to sending forth to a 
 Erejudiced world, that tissue of falsehoods, which Cheetham 
 ad the audacity to palm off on it for the Life of Thomas 
 Paine. 
 
 To James Cheetham. 
 "Sir: 
 
 I have received your letter calling for information re- 
 lative to the life of Thomas Paine. It appears to me that 
 this is not the moment to publish the life of that man in this 
 country. His own writings are his best life, and these are 
 not read at present. 
 
 The greatest part of the readers in the United States will 
 not be persuaded as long as their present feelings last, to con- 
 sider him in any other light than as a drunkard and a deist. 
 The writer of his life who should dwell on these topics, to the 
 exclusion of the great and estimable traits of his real char- 
 acter, might, indeed, please the rabble of the age who do not 
 know him ; the book might sell ; but it would only tend to 
 
62 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 render the truth more obscure, for the future biographer than 
 it was before. 
 
 But if the present writer should give us Thomas Paine 
 complete in all his character as one of the most benevolent and 
 disinterested of mankind, endowed with the clearest percep- 
 tion, an uncommon share of original genius, and the greatest 
 breadth of thought ; if this piece of biography should analyze 
 his literary labors, and rank him as he ought to be ranked 
 among the brightest and most undeviating luminaries of the 
 age in which he has lived — ^yet with a mind assailable by flat- 
 tery, and receiving through that weak side a tincture of vanity 
 which he was too proud to conceal ;, with a mind, though 
 strong enough to bear him up, and to rise elastic under the 
 heaviest load of oppression, yet unable to endure the contempt 
 of his former friends and fellow-laborers, the rulers of the 
 country that had received his first apd greatest services — 
 a mind incapable of looking down with serene compassion, as 
 it ought, on the rude scoffs of their imitators, a new genera- 
 tion that knows him not | at mind that shrinks from their 
 society, and unhappily seeks refuge in low company, or looks 
 for consolation in the sordid, solitary bottle, till it sinks at 
 last so far below its'native elevation as to lose all respect for 
 itself, and to forfeit that of his best friends, disposing these 
 friends almost to join with his enemies, and wish, though from 
 different motives, that he would haste to hide himself in the 
 grave — ^if you are disposed and prepared to write his life, thvs 
 entire, to fill up the picture to which these hasty strokes of 
 outline give but a rude sketch with great vacuities, your book 
 may be a useful one for another age, but it will not be relished, 
 nor scarcely tolerated in this. 
 
 The biographer of Thomas Paine should not forget his 
 mathematical acquirements, and his mechanical genius. His 
 invention of the iron bridge, which led him to Europe in the 
 year 1787, has procured him a great reputation in that branch 
 of science, in France and England, in both which countries 
 his bridge has been adopted in many instances, and is now 
 much in use. 
 
 You ask whether he took an oath of allegiance to France. 
 Doubtless, the qualification to be a member of the convention 
 required an oath of fidelity to that country, but involved in it 
 no abjuration of his fidelity to this. He was made a French 
 citizen by the same decree with "Washington, Hamilton, Priest- 
 ley, and Sir James Mackintosh. 
 
 What Mr. M^ has told you relative to the circum- 
 
PERIOD THIED. 63 
 
 stances of his arrestation by order of Robespierre, is erro- 
 neous, at least in one point. Paine did not lodge at the house 
 where he was arrested, but had been dining there with some 
 
 Americans, of whom Mr. M may have been one. I 
 
 never heard before, that Paine was intoxicated that night. 
 Indeed the officers brought him directly to my house, which 
 vas two miles from his lodgings, and about as much from the 
 place where he had been dining. He was not intoxicated 
 when they came to me. Their object was to get me to go 
 the and assist them to examine Paine's papers. It employed us 
 rest of that night, and the whole of the next day at Paine's lod- 
 gings ; and he was not committed to prison till the next evening. 
 
 You' ask what company he kept — he always frequented 
 the best, both in England and Prance, till he became the ob- 
 ject of calumny in certain American papers (echoes of the 
 English court papers), for his adherence to what he thought 
 the cause of liberty in Prance, till he conceived himself neg- 
 lected, and despised by his former friends in the United 
 States. Prom that moment he gave himself very much to 
 drink, and, consequently, to companions less worthy of his 
 better days. 
 
 It is said he was always a peevish inmate — this is possible. 
 So was Lawrence Sterne, so was Torquato Tasso, so was J. J. 
 Rousseau ;* but Thomas Paine, as a visiting acquaintance and 
 as a literary friend, the only points of view in which I knew 
 him, was one of the most instructive men I ever have known. 
 He had a surprising memory and brilliant fancy ; his mind was 
 a storehouse of facts and useful observations ; he was full of 
 lively anecdote, and ingenious original, pertinent remark upon 
 almost every subject. 
 
 He was always charitable to the poor beyond his means, a 
 sure protector and friend to all Americans in distress that 
 he found in foreign countries. And he had frequent occasions 
 to exert his influence in protecting them during the revolu- 
 tion in France. His writings will answer for his patriotism, 
 and his entire devotion to what he conceived to be the best 
 interest and happiness of mankind. 
 
 This, sir. is all I have to remark on the subject you mention. 
 Now I have only one request to make, and that would doubt- 
 less seem impertinent, were you not the editor of a news- 
 
 * The peevishness of the famous Dr. Samuel Johnson is notorious : and 
 David, the " man after God's own heart," was so inveterately peevish as to 
 sing, whilst he forced the sweet tones of his harp to accompany the spiteful 
 santicle, '■ All men are liars.' 
 
64 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 paper ; it is, that you will not publish my letter, nor permit a 
 copy of it to be taken. 
 
 I am, sir, &c., 
 
 Joel Baelow. 
 Kaloeama, August 11, 1809." 
 
 " Mr. Barlow," says Mr. Vale, " was in Prance at the 
 time of Mr. Paine's death, and knew not his habits. Cheet- 
 ham wrote to him, informed him of his object, mentioned that 
 Paine was drunken and low in his company towards the latter 
 years of his life, and says he was informed that he was drunk 
 when taken to prison in Prance. Now Mr. Barlow does not 
 contradict Cheetham ; he could not, as Cheetham had the 
 better opportunity of knowing facts, and Mr. Barlow does 
 not suspect him of falsehood ; as who would ? He therefore 
 fresurrues Mr. Cheetham correct in the statement, and goes 
 on, not to excuse Paine, but to present his acknowledged 
 good qualities as a set-off. Then Cheetham publishes this 
 letter, and presents, to a cursory reader, Mr. Joel Barlow as 
 acknowledging Mr. Paine's intemperance, and other infirmi- 
 ties, which had no other foundation than Cheetham's decla- 
 ration, given to deceive Barlow ; who afterwards, as we have 
 seen, gives Barlow's letter to deceive the public." 
 
 The late Mr. D. Burger, a respectable watch and clock 
 maker in the city of New York, and who, when a boy, was 
 clerk in the store which furnished Mr. Paine's groceries, person- 
 ally assured the writer of this, that all the liquor which Mr. 
 Paine bought, both for himself and his friends, at a time, too, 
 when drinking was fashionable, was one quart a week. 
 
 Before returning to the thread of this narrative, I will 
 call the attention of the reader to the following letter, from 
 Mr. Jefferson, written to Mr. Paine, in answer to one which 
 the latter wrote to him, from Paris : — 
 
 " You express a wish in your letter to return to America 
 by a national ship ; Mr. Dawson, who brings over the treaty, 
 and who will present you with this letter, is charged with 
 orders to the captain of the Maryland to receive and accomo- 
 date you back, if you can be ready to depart at such a short 
 warning. You will in general find us returned to sentiments 
 worthy of former times ; in these it will be your glory to have 
 steadily labored, and with as much effect as any man living. 
 That you may live long to continue your useful labors, and 
 reap the reward iflPthe thankfulness of nations, is.my. sincere 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 65 
 
 prayer. Accept the assurances of my high esteem, and affection- 
 ate attachment. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson had, during the election campaign -which 
 seated him in the presidential chair, been pronounced an in- 
 fidel ; and, says Randall, in his " Life of Je^erson." " It was 
 asserted in the Federal newspapers generally, and preached 
 from a multitude of pulpits, that one of the first acts of the 
 President, after entering office, was' to send a national yessel 
 to invite and bring ' Tom Paine ' to America." 
 
 " Paine was an infidel," continues Randall. " He had 
 written politically against Washington. He was accused of 
 inebriety, and a want of chastity, [of the truth of both which 
 accusations Randall strongly indicates his unbelief.] But he 
 was the author of " Common Sense " and the " Crisis." 
 
 On the occasion, of Paine's writing to Jefferson, that he 
 was coming to visit him at Monticello, Randall again re- 
 marks : — "Mrs. Randolph, and we think Mrs. Epps, both 
 daughters of the Church of England, were not careful to 
 conceal that they would have much preferred to have Mr. 
 Paine stay away. Mr. Jefferson turned to the speaker with 
 his gentlest smile, and remarked in substance : " Mr. Paine 
 is not, I believe, a favorite among the ladies — but he is too 
 well entitled to the hospitality of every American, not to 
 cheerfully receive mine." Paine came, and remained a day or 
 two, **** and left Mr. Jefferson's mansion, the subject of 
 lighter prejudices, than he entered it." 
 
 Mr. Paine was to have accompanied Mr. Monroe back to 
 the United States, but was unable to complete his arrange- 
 ments in time. This was fortunate ; for the vessel in which 
 the American minister embarked was, on her passage, boarded 
 by a British frigate, and thoroughly searched for the author ' 
 of " The Rights of Man." Paine then went to Havre ; but 
 finding that several British frigates were cruising about the 
 port, he returned to Paris. 
 
 Seeing himself thus baulked, he wrote to Mr. Jefferson, 
 as before stated, for assistance, which produced the letter 
 above copied. He did not, however, for some cause or other, 
 take passage in the Maryland. He next agreed to sail with 
 Commodore Barney, but was accidentally detained beyond 
 the time, and the vessel in which he was to have embarked, 
 was lost at sea. " 
 
66 LIFE OF THOMAS t>AINE. 
 
 In • addition to these remarkable preservations, Paine, in 
 1805, was shot at through the window of his own house, at 
 New Rochelle, and escaped unharmed ; also the privateer in 
 which, but for the interference of his father, (as we have 
 seen) he would, when a youth, have sailed, lost 174 out of her 
 crew of 200 men, in a single battle ; and when he was in 
 prison, as has already been related, he missed going to the 
 guillotine, in consequence of the jailor, whose business it was 
 to put the death-mark on the cell doors of the doomed, not 
 noticing that the door of the cell which contained the author 
 of the " Age of Reason" was open flat against the wall, so 
 that the inside was marked for the information of Paine, in- 
 stead of the outside for the instruction of the executioner.* 
 
 * " But in this set of /rumbrils [the dung-carts in which the victims of 
 the Keign of Terror were dragged to execution] thereare two other things 
 notable : one notable person ; and one want of a notable person. The no- 
 table person is Lieutenant-General Loiserolles, a nobleman by birth, and by 
 nature ; laying down his life here for his son. In the prison of Saint-Lazare, 
 the night before last, hurrying to the gate to hear the death-list read, he 
 caught the name of his son. The son was asleep at the moment. " I am 
 Loiserolles," cried the old man ; at Tinville's bar, an error in the Christian 
 name is little ; small objection was made.— The want of the notable person, 
 again, is that of Deputy Paine ! Paine has sat in the Luxembourg since 
 January ; and Sgemed forgotten ; but Pouqnier had pricked him at last. 
 The Turnkey, list in hand, is marking with chalk the outer doors of to-mor- 
 row's Fournee. Paine's outer door happened to be open, turned back on 
 the wall ; the Turnkey marked it on the side next him, and hurried on ; an- 
 other Turnkey came, and shut it ; no chalk-mark now visible, the Fournee 
 went without Paine. Paine's life lay not there." — Carlyle. 
 
 Pouquier Tinville, above alluded to, was the head juryman of the Revo- 
 lutionary Tribunal. He was far more blood-thirsty than was Robespierre 
 himself. Was not the proof of his atrocities indubitable, it would be impos- 
 sible to believe that such horrors ever took place. Tet such a " man of 
 principle," and so incorruptible was this horrible wretch, that, says Allison, 
 "women, the pleasures of the table, or of £he theatre, were alike indiiferent 
 to him.*** He might during the period of his power, have amassed an im- 
 mense fortune ; he remained to the last poor, and his wife is said to have 
 died of famine. His lodgings were destitute of every comfort ; their whok- 
 furniture, after his death, did not sell for twenty pounds. No seduction 
 could influence him." I will add, so much for principle. PonQuiER Tin- 
 ville WAS, PAST ALL QUESTION, VIRTnOUS, HONEST, SINCERE, CONSCIEN- 
 TIOUS. Had this miserable victim of the crudest and hardest to be got 
 rid of delusion that mankind were ever infatuated with, been as destitute 
 of all "virtuous" qualities as was Alexander VI., he could, at worst, have been 
 bought otf, and would probably not have perpetrated a tithe of the evil he 
 did. He at last, like Robespierre, '• sealed his testimony " on the scafifold. 
 
 The French, like ourselves, had been taught to venerate a religious sys- 
 tem which deifies that Crowning atrocity, crucifixion to satisfy justice .' and 
 
PERIOD TRIED. 67 
 
 Had a missionary of snperstition been thus preserved, how the 
 hand of " God " would have been seen in the matter. 
 
 He at last sailed from Havre, on the 1st of September, 
 1802, and arrived at Baltimore, on the 30th of October, fol- 
 lowing. 
 
 From Baltimore he went to Washington, where he was 
 kindly received by the President, Thomas Jefferson. This 
 gentleman thought so highly of him, that a few days before 
 his arrival, he remarked to a friend, — " If there be an office 
 in my gift, suitable for him to fill, I will give it to him ; I 
 will never abandon old friends to make room for new ones." 
 Jefferson was one of the few among Paine's iUustrious friends, 
 who never joined the priest ridden multitude against him. 
 He corresponded with him up to the time of his death. 
 
 Mr. Paine was now between sixty and seventy years of 
 age, yet vigorous in body, and with a mind not at all im- 
 paired. 
 
 Of the manner in which he was generally received on his 
 return to the United States, we can form a very fair judg- 
 
 which consequently canonizes daily and hourly self-crucifixion. In all can- 
 dour I ask, was not practical faith in the guillotine the natural result ? and 
 are not war, duelling, torturing, hanging, imprisoning ; together with blam- 
 ing and despising our unfortunate fellow creatures as vicious, — as less holy 
 than our stupid selves, the practical logic of " virtue " and " principle ?" 
 And were not Marat, Joseph I^bon, St. Just, Robespierre, Tinville, and the 
 rest of that ilk, the tools — the agents — the faithful servants, and finally the 
 victims of the supernaturalistically educated and virtuously inclined majority! 
 The arch tyrant who was at the bottom of all this. I shall take in hand 
 presently, and show how to conquer ; ay, annihilate him. 
 
 If the grand truth was taught us from our cradles, that we can no more 
 expect well-doing without the requisite materialistic conditions, than we can 
 expect a watch to keep time except on condition that every wheel and spring 
 shall be in artistic harmony with each other, where would be malice I And 
 if we practiced in accordance with this grand truth, where would be either 
 wholesale or retail murder ? where would be wrong of any description ? 
 
 " I don't know about that," methinks I hear the mildest of the old fogies 
 exclaim. "Well, my dear fellow biped, I'll tell you one thing you do most 
 assuredly /ce/ to be true ; and you know it to be true, as sure as you are ca- 
 pable of the slightest connection of ideas. It is this. The present method 
 of reforming the world, has, since the most barbarous age, never done aught 
 but make it a great deal worse. Are people more honest or lass gallant 
 now than they ever were ? And if civilized nations are not quite so cruel, 
 especially in war time, as are savages, is not that clearly traceable to science 
 and art? Show me where man is least cruel, and I will show you where 
 " supernaturalism." the synonym for ignorance, and the very basis of '• vir- 
 tue," principle, and moralism, has lost the most ground, and where science 
 and art have gained the most. 
 
68 LIFE OP THOMAS PaJNB. 
 
 ment from the following letter to his friend, Clio Rick- 
 man : — 
 
 " My Dear Friend : 
 
 Mr. Monroe, who is appointed minister extraordinary to 
 France, takes charge of this, to be delivered to Mr. Este, 
 banker in Paris, to be forwarded to you. 
 
 I arrived at Baltimore 30th October, and you can have 
 no idea of the agitation which my arrival occasioned. From 
 New Hampshire to Georgia (an extent of 1500 miles), every 
 newspaper was filled with applause or abuse. 
 
 My property in this country has been taken care of by my 
 friends, and is now worth six thousand pounds sterling; 
 which put in the funds will bring me £400 sterling a year. 
 
 Remember me in friendship and affection to your wife and 
 family, and in the circle of our friends. 
 
 Yours in friendship, 
 
 Thomas Paine." 
 
 With respect to the course which Mr. Paine intended, for 
 the future, to pursue, he says I — 
 
 I have no occasion to ask, nor do I intend to accept, any 
 place or office in the government. 
 
 There is none it could give me that would in any way be 
 equal to the profits I could make as an author, (for I have an 
 established fame in the literary world) could I reconcile it to 
 my principles to make money by my politics or religion ; I 
 must be in everything as I have ever been, a disinterested 
 volunteer : my proper sphere^f action is on the common floor 
 of citizenship, and to honest men I give my hand and my heart 
 freely. 
 
 I have some manuscript works to publish, of which I shall 
 give proper notice, and some mechanical affairs to bring for- 
 ward, that will employ all my leisure time." 
 
 From Washington, Mr. Paine went to New York, and 
 put up at the City Hotel, where the mayor and De Witt 
 Cliaton called on him ; and, notwithstanding the influence of 
 the emissaries of superstition and their dupes, he was-honored 
 with a public dinner, by a most respectable and numerous 
 party ; and it is worthy of remark that Cheetham, then edi- 
 tor of a democratic daily paper, was particularly officious in 
 helping to make the arrangements. 
 
 In respect to Cheetham's fictions about the slovenliness 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 69 
 
 of Mr. Paine, if there had been any truth in his assertions, 
 ■would not his most intimate friends, such as De Witt Clin- 
 ton, the mayor of New York, and Mr. Jarvis, have noticed 
 it ? The truth about this is, that Mr. Paine, though always 
 clean, was as cardess in his dress as were Napoleon and Fre- 
 deric the Great ; and almost as lavish of his snuff. We have 
 the positive and very respectable testimony of Mr. John Fel- 
 lows, that Mr. Paine's slovenliness went no further than this. 
 
 But the sun of liberty had now so evidently passed meri- 
 dian in America, that most of the leading politicians of the 
 day considered it for their interests to turn their backs on 
 Mr. Paine ; this threw the great martyr to the cause of free- 
 dom into the society of a class of people with better hearts, 
 and except in respect of political gambling and fraud, with 
 sounder heads. 
 
 Among this class was a respectable tradesman, a black- 
 smith and veterinary surgeon, of the name of Carver. When 
 a boy, he had known Paine, who also, recollected him by 
 some little services which Carver reminded him that he had 
 performed for him at Lewes, in Sussex, England ; such, for 
 instance, as saddling his horse for him. Mr. Carver was 
 comfortably situated, and was honest and independent enough 
 to openly avow the religious opinions of the author of the 
 " Age of Reason." Paine boarded at his house some time 
 before going to live at New Rochelle. 
 
 In a fit of anger, however, the unsuspicious Mr. Carver 
 afterwards became the tool of Cheetham ; 'a circumstance 
 which he (Carver) sorely regretted to the day of his death. 
 
 I once met him at a celebration of Paine's birth-day, and 
 shall never forget the anxiety which the venerable old gen- 
 tleman exhibited to do away with the wrong impression 
 which the great libeller of Mr. Paine had betrayed him into 
 making on the public mind. The circumstances were, in 
 short, these : Carver had presented a bill for board to Mr. 
 Paine, which the latter (who, as truly generous people usually 
 are, was very economical) considered exorbitant, and, there- 
 fore, hastily proposed paying off-hand, and having nothing 
 more to do with Carver. Carver would probably not have 
 presented any bill at all, had he not been, just then, in.rather 
 straightened circumstances, and at the same time aware that 
 Mr. Paine was in aflSuence. He got into a passion at the 
 manner in which Mr. Paine treated his claim, wrote him sojne 
 angry letters, and unfortunately kept copies of them ; which 
 Cheetham, without letting him know what use he intended 
 
70 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 to make of them, managed to get hold of, and publish after 
 Mr. Paine's death, though the difBculty which elicited them 
 had been immediately and amicably adjusted between the 
 parties concerned. 
 
 This piece of chicanery, however, cost Cheetham a convic- 
 tion for libel on Madam Bonneville, who had been, though only 
 by inuendo, mentioned in the letters aforesaid, in a manner 
 which society, in its present state of wisdom, pleases to consi- 
 der scandalous. 
 
 When Mr. Paine went to New'Eochelle, -he boarded with 
 Mr. Purdy, who lived on his farm. He offered Madam- 
 Bonneville and her two sons his small farm at Bordentown, . 
 But that rural retreat was so different from Paris, that she 
 chose to remain in New York, where she taught French 
 occasionally, but was almost wholly supported by Mr. 
 Paine. 
 
 Madam Bonneville, though generally amiable, sometimes 
 contracted debts which Mr. Paine conceived unnecessary. 
 She furthermore, says Mr. Vale, " did not scruple to send 
 bills in to him which he had not sanctioned." To check which 
 propensity, Mr. Paine once allowed himself to be sued by a 
 Mr. Wilburn.-for a debt of thirty-five dollars for her board ; 
 but after nonsuiting the plaintiff, he paid the debt. As a 
 proof that there was never any serious quarrel between Mr. 
 Paine and Madam Bonneville, that lady, her husband and fam- 
 ily were, as we shall presently see, Mr. Paine's principal 
 legatees. 
 
 To oblige his friends, Mr. Paine after a while left his 
 farm at New Eochelle, and went back to Carver's to board ; 
 where he remained till he took up his residence at the house 
 of Mr. Jarvis, the celebrated painter, who relates the folow- 
 ing anecdote of his guest : 
 
 " One afternoon, a very old lady, dressed in a large. scar- 
 let cloak, knocked at the door, and inquired for Thomas 
 Paine. Mr. Jarvis told her he was asleep. ' I am very sor- 
 ry,' she said, ' for that, for I want to see him very particular- 
 ly.' Thinking it a pity to make an old woman call twice, 
 Mr. Jarvis took her into Paine's bed-room and waked him. 
 He rose upon one elbow, and then, with an expression of eye 
 that staggered the old woman, back a step or two, he ask- 
 ed — 'What do you want?' — 'Is your name Paine?' — 'Yes.' 
 Well then, I come from Almighty God, to tell you, that if 
 you do not repent of your sins and believe in our blessed Sa- 
 viour Jesus Christ, you will be damned, and ' ' Poh, 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 71 
 
 poh, it is not true. You were not sent with such an imper- 
 tinent message. Jarvis, make her go away. Psliaw, he 
 would not send such a foolish old woman as you abput with 
 his messages. Go away. Go back. Shut the door. The 
 old lady raised both her hands, kept them so, and without 
 saying another word, walked away in mute astonishment." 
 
 In 1807, Mr. Paine, now in the seventieth year of his age, 
 removed to the house of Mr. Hitt, a baker, in Broome-street, 
 street. Whilst here, he published " An Examination of the 
 Passages in the New Testament, quoted from the Old, and 
 called Prophecies of the Coming of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Mr. Paine lived in Partition-street successively ; and af- 
 terwards, in Greenwich-street ; but becoming too feeble to 
 be thus moving about among boarding houses. Madam Bonne- 
 ville, in May, 1809, hired for his accommodation a small 
 house in Columbia-street, where she attended on him till his 
 death. 
 
 Mr. Paine had moved from house to house, as we have 
 seen, not because he had not ample resources, but, partly to 
 oblige his friends, and partly for the variety it afforded, part- 
 ly because it suited his plain and simple habits, and partly 
 because, like most old people, he had become a little too fru- 
 gal. 
 
 Perceiving his end approaching, Mr. Paine applied to 
 Willit Hicks, an influential preacher of tLe Society of Friends, 
 for permission to be buried in their cemetary. Mr. Hicks 
 laid the proposition before the members of his meeting, who, 
 to their eternal disgrace returned a negative answer. 
 
 Of course, the author of " Age of Reason," was now beset 
 by the emissaries of superstition. The clergy themselves not 
 being aware of the momentous, eternal, and impregnable mo- 
 tericdistic truth which the folly they teach encrusts, were 
 panic-struck at finding the battery of reason, which had 
 proved so powerful, under Paine's management, against 
 kings, aimed at them, and by the same skilful engineer. 
 They therefore spared no pains which malice and the mean 
 cowardice which a " consciousness of guilt " inspires, could 
 invent, to get up some show of materials, out of which to 
 manufacture a recantation. But not the least particle pf any 
 proof of what they sought did they obtain ; all the pious 
 tales with which they have insulted the world on the subject, 
 are sheer fabrications. Yet the Christian judge who sen- 
 tenced Cheetham for libel on account of one of these wretch- 
 ed impositions, did not blush, says Mr. Vale, to " compli- 
 
72 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE 
 
 ment " that arch impostor for having by the very act for 
 "which he was legally compelled to condemn him to pay " hea- 
 vy damages " produced a work useful to religion !" * 
 
 Not long before his death, Mr. Paine, in the course of con- 
 versation with his friend Jarvis, at whose house he then was, 
 observed : " Now I am in health, and in perfect soundness 
 of mind ; now is the time to express my opinion." He then 
 solemnly declared that his views, as set forth in his theologi- 
 cal writings, remained the same. 
 
 The late Dr. Manly, on the occasion of my calling his at- 
 tention to an article in an English Encyclopedia which con- 
 veyed the idea that he testified to Paine's recantation, assur- 
 ed me that the author of " The Age of Eeason " " did not 
 recant ;" and the Doctor seemed not over pleased, that his 
 words had been tortured into giving the impression they did. 
 He believed that Mr. Paine's last words were, — " I don't 
 wish to hear anything more about that man ;" in answer to 
 the question, — " Do you wish to believe in Jesus Christ ?" I 
 think I remember Dr. Manly's words correctly, though Mr. 
 Vale says that the answer of Paine, as reported by Dr. Man- 
 ly, was, — "I have no wish to believe on the subject." It 
 will be perceived, however, that there is no material differ- 
 ence ; and that Dr. Manly might, on two several occasions, 
 and at wide intervals, have stated the answer in both ways ; 
 either of which, conveys essentially the same meaning. 
 
 On one occasion, a Methodist preacher obtruded himself 
 on Mr. Paine, and abruptly told him that, " unless he repent- 
 ed of his unbelief, he would be damned." To which, the al- 
 most dying man, partly rising in his bed, indignantly answer- 
 ed, that if he was able, he would immediately put him out of 
 the room. This scene is related by Mr. Willit Hicks, of 
 whom mention has already been made. 
 
 The clergy condescended, in their desperation to blacken 
 the character, and destroy the influence of him who they 
 feared would otherwise put an end to the craft by which they 
 had their wealth, to make use of means which, in pity to poor 
 human nature, would I gladly consign to oblivion, and shall, 
 
 * From a large pamphlet, entitled " Grant Thorbnrn and Thomas 
 Paine, " recently put forth gratis by Mr. Oliver White, I learn that a reii- 
 gioHS publisher in New Tork has, within a few years past, had to pay dam- 
 ages for a malicious article aimed at the character of Paine, but which inci- 
 dentally hit somebody else ; which article, it is but justice to the publisher's 
 memory (for he is now dead) to say, he was betrayed into publishing, proba- 
 bly without any ill intention on his part, 
 
PERIOD THIED. 73 
 
 therefore, mention only some prominent cases. I have 
 named Cheetham, as he -was a public character — an editor. 
 But I shall in mercy let the names of the private individuals 
 who were the tools which the priesthood made use of in this 
 connection, sink beneath contempt ; in fact, I feel not alto- 
 gether guiltless of sacrilege, in placing the name of any one 
 of Thomas Paine's slanderers in the same volume which con- 
 tains his. 
 
 It has herein been indubitably proven that the first part 
 of " The Age of Reason," the first of Faine's " infidd " pro- 
 ductions, be it remembered, was written in 1793 ; and that 
 the second part was written some time thei-eafter. Franklin 
 died in 1790. Yet the " American Tract Society" has not 
 scrupled to assert, in a tract entitled " Don't Unchain the 
 Tiger," that " When an infidel production was submitted — 
 probably by Paine — 'to Benjamin Franklin, in manuscript, 
 he returned it to the author, with a letter, from which the 
 following is extracted : "7 would advise you rwt'to attempt 
 UNCHAINING THE TIGER, hut to bum this piece before it is seen 
 by any other person." " ]^ men are so wicked mth religion, 
 what would they be without, ti.?" 
 
 " Think" said he to Paine, in a letter, to which allusion 
 has been made, " how many inconsiderate and inexperienced 
 youth of both sexes there are, who have need of the motives of 
 religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and 
 retain them in the practice of it tiM it becomes habitual." 
 
 It will be perceived that the above pretended extract is 
 given as though it was verbatim ; though from a letter which, 
 in a very circuitous manner, and one most ingeniously calcu- 
 lated to deceive is, after all, confessed to be only "probaMy" 
 written. The concluding portion of the extract, is given 
 only after considerable pious dust has been most artistically 
 thrown in the eyes of the more prayerful than careful reader. 
 Here, the author of " Don't Unchain the Tiger," resolves no 
 longer to let " I dare not, wait upon I would," but fuEy de- 
 clares, though in a manner that would do credit to the most 
 trickish Jesuit, that ever mentaUy reserved the truth, that the 
 "letter to which mention has been made," was written by 
 Franklin to Paine, evidently, as all can see, who have mas- 
 tered the second rule of arithmetic, three years after the death 
 of the writer." Yet Protestants laugh at Catholics, for swal- 
 lowing transubstantiation. 
 
 How firmly did they who put forth " Don't Unchain 
 The Tiger," believe in revelation? How much faith had 
 
74 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 they, in the truth of a book wherein it is printed, that " God " 
 had declared — " Liars shall have their part in the lake that 
 burns with fire and brimstone ?" 
 
 Mark this " probahly " -well. There is in it suc¥ an ex- 
 quisiteness of all that is mean, cowardly, mendacious, and con- 
 temptible. 
 
 If the writer of " Don't Unchain the Tiger " ever saw any 
 letter from which he extracted what he pretends he has, did 
 not that letter inform him, past all " probably," and hefme 
 he, made, the first part of the extract, by whom, and to whom, 
 it was written ? 
 
 Oh, ye priests ! How low are ye fallen ! What lower 
 depths can human degradation touch ? How much smaller 
 can you, your own contemptible selves, suppose the intellect- 
 ual calibre of your poor dupes to be ? What satisfaction can 
 you feel in the reverence of those whose understandings you 
 thus estimate ? 
 
 Compare the present position, in the social organism, of 
 your sincere disciples, with that which they occupied when 
 what you teach was the highest which man was prepared to 
 receive. 
 
 But unless my memory serves me very badly, this " Tiger " 
 tract was originally published without the " probably ;" and 
 unequivocally named the " Age of Eeason." I recollect well, 
 that about twenty-five years ago, a committee, one of whom 
 was the famous infidel lecturer, the late Mr. Benjamin Offen, 
 called at the Tract Society's agency, and pointed out how 
 impossible it was that this " Tiger" publication -which hailed 
 from thence, could be true ; and I am strongly impressed that 
 this miserable "prohaMy " has been the result. 
 
 Clergymen, it is neither in malice nor anger, but with 
 feelings of unfeigned sorrow and pity, that I use such lan- 
 guage to and respecting you. I have not a wish that would 
 not be gratified, were you at this moment at the head of man- 
 kind, ^eacAi?ig' the hrijowahle ; and until you are worthily rein- 
 stated in jovoc rightful — your na^MraJ position in the social 
 organism, violence, fraud, humbug — in fine, demagogism, will 
 there revel, and you will be its degraded purveyor. How do 
 you relish the impudence with which demagogism now snubs 
 you feack to the " supernatural," whenever you dare utter a 
 practical word ? 
 
 I could fill twenty pages or more with extracts, many of 
 them documentary, from previous histories of Paine, going to 
 prove that the author of " The Age of Reason " never recanted. 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 75 
 
 But can it be possible that those who possess a spark of rea- 
 son, eyen, can consider the matter of theslightest consequence? 
 The question of the truth or falsehood of a proposition is a 
 matter for the judgment to decide. Is the judgment of a dying 
 man more clear than that of a perfectly healthy one ? Was 
 there ever an instance known, of a human biped being so big 
 a fool, as to go to a dying man for advice in preference to 
 going to him for it when he was in health, where any knoum 
 value was concerned ? The thing is too absurd to waste an- 
 other word upon ; and I have noticed it at all, only to show 
 to what meanness modern priests will stoop ; to what miser- 
 able shifts the corrupt hangers on to the superanuated and 
 effete, are at length reduced. At this day the wretched for- 
 tune-teller who deals out supernaturalism by the fifty cents 
 worth, may justly feel proud by the side of the archbishop — 
 by the side of the successors of those who, before the dawn of 
 science, taught the highest which man was capable of receiv- 
 ing, thus starting civilization into existence, and justly be- 
 coming mightier than kings. But the time is fast approach- 
 ing when they will teach the knowable and efficient, and re- 
 sume their natural position, that of the head of the social or- 
 ganism. Till when, confusion will keep high holiday, folly 
 be rampant, ignorance supreme, and superstition and dema- 
 gogism will be rife. The case is as clear as this : — Man 
 comes into the world ignorant, and of course needs teaching. 
 Yet what has been palmed off on man for elective govern- 
 ment, confessedly but represents Mm. The clergy professedly 
 teach him ; and of course, when they teach him right, as they 
 will soon find out that it is immeasurably more for their own 
 advantage to do, than it is to teacli Mm wrong, all will be 
 well. The human race will, from that point in teaching, 
 rapidly develop into a harmoniously regulated organism ; a 
 .grand being, or God, to whom all the conceivable and de- 
 sirable will be possible. Each individual will act as freely 
 as do the 9rheels and springs of a perfect, because sderdifically 
 and artisticoMy, and harmoniously regulated time-keeper. 
 
 At whatever stage of development caucus-and-ballot-bbx- 
 ism takes charge of man, it assumes that he is, in the main, 
 wise enough already ; that the majority is the fountain-head 
 of both wisdom and power ; that i-ulers are legitimately but 
 the servants of the rvled. What balderdash. 
 
 The only government, except that of despotism or hum- 
 bug, that man ever has had, now has, or ever can have, was, 
 
76 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 is, and must be, under simple nature, that of science and art — 
 that of teaching. 
 
 " Let me make the people's songs, and I care not who 
 makes their laws," said Napoleon. " Let me make the peo- 
 ple's cradle-hymns and Sunday-school catechisms," say I, 
 " and I will defy all the power which can be brought against 
 me to supplant me in their government, except by adopting 
 my method." 
 
 And when the people's cradle-hymns and Sunday school 
 catechisms are composed by those who qualify themselves to 
 lead, direct, or govern mankind by science and art, and who 
 derive human law from the whole body of the knowable, in- 
 stead of from the wild regions of the speculative, and from 
 the arbitrary subjective, the world will be delivered from 
 religious, political, social, and moral quackery ; but not tiU 
 then. And to whomsoever says " lo here" " lo there," or lo 
 any where except to the science of sciences and art of arts of 
 how to be free, I say, and appeal for my justification, to the 
 entire past, — you are deceived or a deceiver. 
 
 If the world was not deluded with the idea that reason 
 and free discussion are the only means that are available 
 against priestcraft and statecraft, it would long since have 
 discovered and applied the true remedy, viz : to seize the 
 citadel of the infant mind — of education ; and thus institute 
 a religion and government of science and art, in place of a 
 religion of mystery and a government of despotism and hum- 
 bug. False religion and its correlate — bad government, 
 must be prevented. Whatever religious or governmental no- 
 tions are bred into man, can never to any efficient extent, be 
 got out of him. 
 
 Priestcraft and statecraft, in England and the United 
 States, would like nothing better than an assurance, that 
 mankind's reformers would henceforth confine their efforts to 
 reason and free discussion, and to the furtherance of educa- 
 tion on its present plan in aM our schools and coUeges. Priest- 
 craft and statecraft would then forever be as safe as would a 
 well regulated army among undisciplined savages, who did 
 nothing but find fault with their oppressors ; and to the va- 
 rious cliques of which savages, the regulars would suggest as 
 many various plans for their own (the regular's) overthrow, 
 for them, (the savages) to discuss over and divide upon. 
 
 In one of the most purely monarchical countries in all 
 Europe (Germany) common school and collegiate education 
 prominently form one of the government's pet projects. 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 
 
 77 
 
 In England, where the wheels of the state machinery 
 iniitually neutralize each other's action, neither monarchs nor 
 ecclesiastics can do aught but keep themselves miserably 
 rich, and the great body of the people wretchedly poor. 
 
 Free discussion ana reason have done what little good in 
 church and state affairs it was their function to do, except as 
 will he hereinafter mentioned ; and they are now in both Eng- 
 land and the United States, but the safety-valve which pre- 
 vents the boiler of the ecclesiastical steam-engine from burst- 
 ing ; and secures political despotism, swindling, and corrup- 
 tidn, from having to do any thing but change hands. 
 
 Keason and free discussion are now the fifth wheel of the 
 car of progress, whose useless noise and comparatively singu- 
 lar appearance diverts attention from the slow ; nay, back- 
 ward movement, of the other four wheels, and thus prevents 
 any change for the better being made. 
 
 If, on the continent of Europe, monarchs and the Pope 
 forbid political and religious free discussion, it is not because 
 Ihey are afraid that the first will lead to liberty, or the sec- 
 ond to practical wisdom. They are perfectly aware that /ree 
 talking but disturbs political and religious affairs ; and would 
 only displace themselves who are well seated in, and have 
 grown fat on, religious and political abuse, to make way for 
 an ungorged shoal of political and ecclesiastical leeches. 
 
 Passing lightly over the pitiable trash which in the 
 United States more than in any other country is palmed off 
 on the multitude for knowledge, look at our higher litera- 
 ture. See how it truckles to the low, and narrow, and un- 
 scientific views which confessedly had their rise when man was 
 a mere savage. Wliere, throughout the United States, is the 
 magazine which has the liberal and independent tone of the 
 Westminster Review, which hails from the capital of mon- 
 archy- governed and confessedly church-taxed England ? The 
 most independent magazine of which the United States can 
 boast, is the " Atlantic Monthly ;" but I have strong misgiv- 
 ings as to whether they whose monied interests are staked 
 in it will thank me, or would thank any one, for such 
 praise. 
 
 But the orthodox clergy are already, owing almost whol- 
 ly to what mere fractional science and art have done, the laugh- 
 ing-stock of nearly the entire scientific world, and the head- 
 clergy are writhing under the tOrtures of self-contempt, in 
 such agony, that the main drift of their preaching is to try, 
 without arousing their dupes, to let the knowing ones (whom 
 
78 LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 curiosity, interest, or a desperate attempt to dispel Sabbatical 
 ennui may have brought into their congregations) see that 
 they are not the fools which they, for bread and butter's sake, 
 pretend to be. 
 
 The following extract from a letter of Baron Humboldt 
 to his friend Varnhagen Yon Ense, is a fair sample of the con- 
 tempt in which the apostles of mystery are held by men of 
 science : 
 
 "Beelin, March 21, 1842. 
 
 " My dear friend, so happily restored to me ! It is a 
 source of infinite joy to me to learn, from your exquisite let- 
 ter, that the really very delightful society of the Princess's 
 has benefited you physically, and, therefore, as I should say, 
 in my criminal materialism, mentally also. Such a society, 
 blown together chiefly from the same fashionable world of 
 Berlin (somewhat flat and stale), immediately takes a new 
 shape in the house of Princess Pueckler. It is like the spi- 
 rit which should breathe life into the state ; ihe material 
 seems ennobled. 
 
 " I still retain your " Christliche Glaubenslehre," [a cel- 
 ebrated work on the Christian Dogma, by Dr. David Fried- 
 rich Strauss] I who long ago in Potsdam, was so delighted 
 with- Strauss's Life of the Saviour.* One learns from it not 
 only what he does not believe, which is less new to me, but 
 rather what kind of things have been believed and taught 
 by those black coats (parsons) who know how to enslave 
 mankind anew, yea, who are putting on the armour of their 
 former adversaries." 
 
 But a still more encouraging aspect of the case is, that a 
 knowledge of the great truth is rapidly spreading, that all in 
 the human connection is a vast material organism, the possible 
 modifications of which are indicated by the organ of its high- 
 est consciousness, — man ; and that the whole family of man 
 is a grand social organism, (however, as yet, unjointed) the 
 well-being of every part of which, is indispensaiiU to that of 
 every other part. But more of this, shortly. 
 
 Mr. Paine suffered greatly during his last illness, (his dis- 
 ease being dropsy, attended with cough and constant vomit- 
 
 * Hnmboldt's Letters to Varnhagen Von Ense, have jiist been published 
 by Messrs. Eudd & Carleton : and Strauss' Life of the Saviour, or, to give 
 the work its full title, " The Life of Jesus Critically Examined," is published 
 by Oalvin Blanchard. 'J'he translation is by Marian Evans, the accomplishe I 
 authoress of Adam Bede, and is pronounced by Straus.s himself to be moEt 
 elegantly done and perfectly correct. 
 
PERIOD THIRD. 79 
 
 ing), yet his mental faculties remained unimpaired to the last. 
 On the 8th of June, 1809, about nine o'clock in the forenoon, 
 he expired, almost without a struggle. 
 
 I have, as the reader has seen, noticed some of the little 
 foibles and excentricities of Mr. Paine ; not, however, that 
 they were of any account, but simply because they attest that 
 he was not superhumanly perfect ; that he was not that ridi- 
 culius cross between man and " God," which the biographers 
 of Washington have placed him in the position of appearing 
 to be. 
 
 Lovers are sure to have their petty quarrels, else, they 
 would be indifferent to each other ; and when prejudice shall 
 be done away with, mankind will love Thomas Paine none 
 the less for the human frailties which were just sufiBcient to 
 show that he belonged to human nature. 
 
 The day after Mr. Paine's death, his remains were taken 
 to New Rochelle, attended by a few friends, and there buried 
 on his farm ; and a plain stone was erected, with the follow- 
 ing inscription : — 
 
 THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 AUTHOE OP " COMMON SENSE." 
 
 Died June 8, 1809, aged seventy-two years and five months. 
 
 Mr. William Cobbett afterward removed the bones of 
 Mr. Paine to England. 
 
 In 1839, through the exertions of a few friends of the lib- 
 eral cause, among whom Mr. G. Vale was very active, a neat 
 monument, was erected over the grave of Mr. Paine. Mr. 
 Frazee, an eminent artist, generously volunteered to do the 
 sculpture. This moriument cost about thirteen hundred dol- 
 lars. On it is carved a representation of the head of Mr, 
 Paine, underneath which, is this inscription 
 
 THOMAS PAINE, 
 
 AUTHOR OP 
 
 COMMON SENSE. 
 
 Reader, did it ever occur to you, that all the crimes which 
 an individmal can commit, are in reality, summed up in the 
 word misfortune ? Such is the fact. Society, therefore, not 
 altogether without reason, however regardless of justice, con- 
 siders nothing more disgraceful than misfortune ; and hence it 
 
80 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE 
 
 is, that of all the -slanders got up to injure the reputation of 
 Mr. Paine, and thus preTcnt his influence, none have been 
 more industriously circulated, and none have proved more 
 successful, than those which represented him as being in ex- 
 treme poverty. Without further remark, therefore, I shall 
 call your attention to 
 
 THE WILL OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 " The Peoph of the State of New York, hy the Oraxx. bf God. 
 Free and Independent, to aE to whom these presents shall 
 come or may concern, Send Greeting : 
 
 Know ye that the annexed is a true copy of the will of 
 Thomas Paine, deceased, as recorded it the office of our sur- 
 rogate, in and for the city and county of New York. In tes- 
 timony whereof, we have caused the seal of office of our said 
 surrogate to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Silvanus Miller, 
 Esq., surrogate of said county, at the city of New York, the 
 twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 eight hundred and nine, and of our independence the thirty- 
 fourth. Silvanus Millee. 
 
 The last will and testament of me, the subscriber, Thomas 
 Paine, reposing confidence in my Creattir God, and in no 
 other Ijeing, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other, 
 I, Thomas Paine, of the State of New York, author of the 
 work entitled ' Common Sense,' written in Philadelphia, in 
 
 1775, and published in that city the beginning of January, 
 
 1776, which awaked America to a Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, on the fourth of July following, which was as fast as 
 the work could spread thi'ough such an extensive country ; 
 author also of the several numbers of the ' American Crisis ' 
 thirteen in all,' published occasionally during the progress of 
 the revolutionary war — the last is on the peace ; author also 
 of the ' Rights of Man,' parts the first and second, written 
 and published in London, in 1791, and '92 ; author also of a 
 work on religion, ' Age of Eeason,' parts the fir^t and second. 
 ' N. B. I have a third part by me in manuscript and an an- 
 swer to the Bishop of Landaff ;' author also of a work, lately 
 published, entitled ' Examination of the passages in the New 
 Testament quoted from the Old, and called prophesies con- 
 cerning Jesus Christ,' and showing there are no prophecies 
 of any such person ; author also of several other works not 
 here enumerated, ' Dissertations on the first Principles of Go- 
 vernment,' — ' Decline and Fall of the English System of Fi- 
 nance ' — ' Agrarian Justice" etc., etc., make this my last will 
 
PEEIOD THIED. 81 
 
 and testament, that is to say : I give and bequeath to my exe- 
 cutors hereinafter appointed, Walter Morton and Thomas Ad- 
 dis Emmet, thirty shares I hold in the New York Phoenix In- 
 surance Company, which cost me -1470 dollars, they are worth 
 now upward of 1500 dollars, and all my moveable effects-, and 
 also the money that may be in my trunk or elsewhere at the 
 time of my decease, paying thereout the expenses of my fune- 
 ral, in trust as to the said shares, moveables, and money, for 
 Margaret Brazier Bonneville, wife of Nicholas Bonneville, 
 of Paris, for her own sole and separate use, and at her own 
 disposal, notwithstanding her coverture. As to my farm in 
 New Rochelle, Igive, devise, and bequeath the same to my 
 said executors, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, 
 and to the survivor of them, his heirs and assigns for ever, 
 in trust, nevertheless, to sell and dispose of the north side 
 thereof, now in the occupation of Andrew A. Dean, beginning 
 at the west end of the orchard and running in a line with the 
 
 land sold to Coles, to the end of the farm, and to apply 
 
 the money arising from such sale as hereinafter directed. I 
 give to my friends, Walter Morton, of the New York Phoenix 
 Insurance Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, counsellor- 
 at-law, late of Ireland, two hundred dollars each, and one 
 hundred dollars to Mrs. Palmer, widow of Elihu Palmer, late 
 of New York, to be paid out of the money arising from said 
 sale, and I give the remainder of the money arising from that 
 sale, one half thereof to Clio Hickman, of High or Upper 
 Mary-la,-bone street, London, and the other half to Nicholas 
 Bonneville of Paris, husband of Margaret B. Bonneville afore- 
 said : and as to the south part of the said farm, containing 
 upward of one hundred acres, in trust, to rent out the same 
 or otherwise put it to profit, as shall he found most advis- 
 able, and to pay the rents and profits thereof to the said Mar- 
 garet B. Bonneville, in trust for her children, Benjamin 
 Bonneville and Thomas Bonneville, their education and 
 maintenance, until they come to the age of twenty-one years, 
 in order that she may bring them well up, give them good 
 and useful learning, and instruct them in their duty to God, 
 and the practice of morality, the rent of the land or the in-* 
 terest of the money for which it may be sold, as hereinafter 
 mentioned, to be employed in their education. And after 
 the youngest of the said children shall have arrived at the 
 age of twenty-one years, in further trust to convey the same 
 to the said children share and share alike in fee simple. But 
 if it shall be thought advisable by my executors and execu- 
 
82 LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 trix, or the survivor or survivors of them, at any time before 
 the youngest of the said children shall come of age, to sell 
 and dispose of the said south side of the said farm, in that case 
 I hereby authorize and empower my said executors to sell and 
 dispose of the same, and I direct that the money arising from 
 such sale be put into stock, either in the United States bank 
 stock or New York Phoenix Insurance company stock, the in- 
 terest or dividends thereof to be applied as is already direct- 
 ed, for the education and maintenance of the said children ; 
 and the principal to be transferred to the said children or the 
 survivor of them on his or their coming of age. I know not if 
 the society of people called quakers admit a person to be bu- 
 ried in their burying-ground, who does not belong to their so- 
 ciety, but if they do, or will admit me, I would prefer being 
 buried there, my father belonged to that profession, and I was 
 partly brought up in it. But if it is not consistent with their 
 rules to do this, I desire to be buried on my farm at New Ro- 
 chelle. The place where I am to be buried to be a square 
 of twelve feet, to be enclosed with rows of trees, and a stone 
 or post and railed fence, with a head-stone with my name 
 and age engraved upon it, author of ' Common Sense.' I 
 nominate, constitute, and appoint Walter Morton, of the 
 New York Phoenix Insurance company, and Thomas Addis 
 Emmet, counsellor-at-law, late of Ireland, and Margaret B. 
 Bonneville my executors and executrix to this my last will 
 and testament, requesting them the said Walter Morton and 
 Thomas Addis Emmet, that they will give what assistance 
 they conveniently can to Mrs. Bonneville, and see that the 
 children be well brought up. Thus placing confidence in 
 their friendship, I herewith take my final leave of them and 
 of the world. I have lived an honest and useful life to man- 
 kind ; my time has been spent in doing good ; and I die in 
 perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creatoi- 
 God. Dated this eighteenth day of January, in the year one 
 thousand eight hundred and nine, and I have also signed my 
 name to the other sheet of this will in testimony of its being 
 a part thereof. Thomas Paine, (l. s.) 
 
 Signed, sealed, and published and declared by the testa- 
 tor, in our presence, who, at his request, and in the presence 
 of each other, have set our names as witnesses thereto, the 
 words ' published and declared ' first interlined. 
 
 William Keese, 
 James Angevien, 
 Cornelius Ryder." 
 
CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 83 
 
 I have now, so far as I can discover, recorded all the 
 facts in relation to Thomas Paine, with which the public 
 have any concern. I have even repeated some things (under 
 protest, be it remembered) with which the public have no 
 business whatever. 
 
 But the most important part of the task which, on refer- 
 ence to my title-page, it will be perceived that I undertook 
 remains to be completed. 
 
 Every one will unquestionably draw their own conclu- 
 sions from facts or what they consider such. But I assure 
 all whom it may concern, that I should not consider myself 
 justified in troubling them with my views on matters of the 
 vast importance of religion or highest law, and govern- 
 ment or social science, had I not devoted to these subjects 
 long years of assiduous preparation ; had I not, rightly or 
 wrongly, systemised facts; even now, I do so with a full 
 consciousness of my need of vastly more light. 
 
 Facts, separately considered, are but the unconnected 
 links of a chain ; truth is the chain itself. Pacts, in them- 
 selves, are worth nothing ; it is only the truths that are de- 
 ducible from them through their systemization that is of use.. 
 Brick, and mortar, and beams, are facts ; entirely useless, 
 ho's^rever, until systemized into an edifice. Every man's life ■ 
 is a fact, but the lives of such men as Rousseau, Paine, 
 Comte, Luther, and Fourier, are sublime truths ; which are 
 to help to give to the lives of the individuals of our race, all 
 that can be conceived of even " eternal" value. 
 
 Strictly speaking, all authors are, like Paine, and Rous- 
 seau, and Comte, heroes. But those writers who merely re- 
 vamp, or polish up old, worn out ideas, and then sell them 
 back again to those from whom they stole, or borrowed, or 
 begged them, are no more authors than they are manufactu- 
 rers who steal, borrow, beg, or buy for next to nothing, old 
 hats, iron them over, and sell them back for new to their 
 former owners, who in their delight to find how truly they 
 fit their heads, do not suspect the cheat. It's a somewhat 
 dfficult thing to make new hats fit heads. It's a Herculean task 
 to make new ideas fit them. It's Tiext to impossible to make 
 new hdMts fit mankind. 
 
 The American Revolution, of which Paine was the " au- 
 thor hero,' and the French Revolution, of which Rousseau 
 was the great mover, were, as I trust we have already seen, 
 but closely connected incidents in the grand Revolution which 
 began with man's instjijctive antagonism to all which stands 
 
84 CONCLDDING APPLICATION. 
 
 in the way of the 'perfect liberty which nature has, by one and 
 the same act, given him both the desire for, and the assu- 
 rance of. 
 
 All which exists or has taken place, is connected with all 
 which ever has existed, or will exist or take place ; and un- 
 less the historian shows that connection, so far as it has a 
 ferceptibly ptactical bearing, history becomes but a mere col- 
 lections of curious, and otherwise barren details. 
 
 I have before directed the attention of the reader to the 
 fact, that whoever penned the Declaration of our National 
 Independence, must have well studied Rousseau's " Contrat 
 Social." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Smith, in his " Divine Drama of History 
 and Civilization," speaks thus' of the relation of Rousseau to 
 his times : — 
 
 " Rousseau was the avenging spirit of the Evangelical 
 Protestants whom monarchical France had massacred or 
 banished. He had the blood and the soul of the Presbyterian 
 in him : but he was drunk with vengeance, and he.had, accord- 
 ing to his own confession, imbibed with his, mother's milk the 
 hatred of kings, and nourished that hate and kept it warm. 
 He declared that though man was born free he was every- 
 where in chains. Reing gifted with great eloquence, he dc- 
 lighted*his readers. He realized the government of the peo- 
 ple and became the soul of the Revolution." 
 
 " Twelve hundred human individuals," says Thomas Car- 
 lyle, " with the Gospel of Jean Jacques Rousseau in their 
 pocket, congregating in the name of twenty-five millions, 
 with full assurance of faith, to " make the Constitution :" 
 such sight, the acme and main product of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, our World can witness only once. For time is rich in 
 wonders, in monstrosities most rich ; and is observed never to 
 repeat himself or any of his Gospels :— surely least of all this 
 Gospel according to Jean Jacques. Once it was right and 
 indispensable, since such had become the belief of man ; but 
 once also is enough." 
 
 " They have made the Constitution, these Twelve Hun- 
 dred-Jean-Jacques Evangelists." 
 
 " A new Fifth Evangelist, Jean-Jacques, calling on men 
 to amend each the whole world's wicked existence, and be 
 saved by making the Constitution." 
 
 Thomas Carlyle in innumerable other cases speaks most lov- 
 ingly of " Poor Jean Jacques." In an elaborate critical esti- 
 mate of Rousseau and the men of the 18th century, he says : 
 
CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 85 
 
 " Hovering in the distance with use— rstruck minatory air- 
 stern-beckoning, comes Rousseau. Poor Jean-Jacques 1 Al- 
 ternately deified and cast to the dogs : a deep-minded, high- 
 minded, even noble, yet woefully misarranged mortal, with 
 all the misformations of nature intensified to the verge of 
 madness by unfavorable Fortune. A lonely man ; his life a 
 long soliloquy 1 The wandering Tiresias of his time ;— in 
 whom, however, did lie prophetic meaning, such as none of 
 the others offer. His true character, with its lofty aspirings 
 and poor performings ; and how the spirit of the man worked 
 so wildly like celestial fire in a thick, dark element of chaos, 
 and shot forth etherial radiance, all piercing lightning, yet 
 could not illuminate, was quenched and did not conquer ; this 
 with what lies in it, may now be pretty accurately apprecia- 
 ted." etc. 
 
 The world-famous " Confessions "* of Rousseau, have also 
 powerfully stimulated revolt against the most despotic of ty- 
 rannies that ever enchained the human race. No romance 
 was ever half so interesting. With resistless power their au- 
 thor compels us to himself. Every page chains the rea- 
 der with electric fascination. With absorbing interest we 
 follow him in every step of his strange sad life. Not a scene 
 in the Confessions but what has formed the subject for a mas- 
 ter piece by some great artist. Rousseau was one of those 
 men whose fame the world has taken into its own hands. 
 One of those big-hearted, truth-loving, high-aspiring yet sad- 
 fated, stumbling men, whose sufferings have been made up for by 
 an eternal meed of tenderness and love. He has been taken 
 into the heart of mankind. 
 
 Perhaps nothing could more markedly manifest the place 
 Jean Jacques holds in the heart of the world than the love 
 and reverence which have been lavished on him by all the 
 high-souled poets and writers in every land since his day. 
 Goethe, Schiller, Jean Paul, Shelley, Brougham, Byron, Car- 
 lyle, Tennyson, etc.. etc. All that is fresh and lofty and spi- 
 ritual in the new French school of Poetry and Literature, is 
 distinctly traceable to Rousseau. Bernadin de Saint Pierre, 
 Mad. de Stael, Chateaubriand, Lamartine, etc., etc., were suc- 
 cessively formed under his influence and adoringly worship- 
 ped him as their master. Thomas Carlyle in a conversation 
 with Emerson, (see English Traits, p. 22,) while speaking of 
 the men who had influenced the formation of his character, 
 
 . * Pablished by Oalvin Blanohard. 
 
86 CONCLUDING AFPLIOATION. 
 
 declared that Bousseavis Confessions had discovered to Mm 
 that he (Carlyle) was not a dunce.. 
 
 R. W. Emerson, too, speaks of " The Confession's" as a 
 hook so important in literature, that it was weU worth while to 
 translate * * its courage and precision of thought will keep it 
 good." 
 
 And the high-souled Schiller hymns Rousseau thus : 
 
 " Hail grave of Rousseau ! here thy troubles cease 1 
 Thy life one search for freedom and for peace : 
 Thee peace and freedom life did ne'er allow : 
 Thy search is ended, and thou find'st them now ! 
 When will the old wounds scar ! In the dark age 
 Perish'd the wise. Light comes — hovv fared the sage ? 
 The same in darkness or in light his fate, 
 Time brings no mercy to the bigot's hate 1 
 Socrates charmed Philosophy to dwell 
 On earth ; by false philosophers he fell : 
 In Rousseau Christians marked their victim — when 
 Rousseau endeavored to make Christians men 1" 
 
 Reader, please to. skip the next six paragraphs, unless 
 you can pardon a digression, (and I must confess to have 
 ■given you some exercise in that respect already) and unless 
 you furthermore love liberty, justice, and equal rights, not as 
 things to be merely talked about, sung about, and " fought, 
 bled and died " about, but as practical realities. 
 
 In a state of bliss in perfect contrast with what generally 
 "passes for married life, Rousseau spent several years with 
 Madam De Warcns ; a lady of noble birth, who was in com- 
 fortable circumstances, enjoying a pension from Victor Ama- 
 dous, king of Sardinia. She was the wife of a man with whom 
 she could not live happily, and from whom she therefore sepa- 
 rated. Rousseau, in his " Confessions," thus describes her : 
 " All who loved her, loved each other. Jealousy and rivalry 
 themselves yielded, to the dominant sentiment she inspired ; 
 and I never saw any of those who surrounded her, entertain 
 the slightest ill will towards each other." " I hazard the as- 
 sertion, that if Socrates could esteem Aspasia, he would have 
 respected Madam de Warens." " Let my reader," continues 
 the enamoured philosopher, " pause a moment at this eulogy ; 
 and if he has in his mind's eye any other woman of whom he 
 
CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 87 
 
 can Bay this much ; let him, as he values Jhis life's repose, 
 cleave to her, were she, for the rest, the lowest of drabs." 
 
 After eight years of bliss with Madam de Warens, that 
 lady's taste, though not her affections, changed. Rousseau, 
 also wishing to visit Paris, they parted in perfect friendship. 
 At Paris, Rousseau resumed the free-love connection with 
 Th^r^se Le Vasseur, a young girl of small accomplishments, 
 but of a most amiable disposition. Some of the highest no- 
 bles in France (including the king and queen) did not disdain 
 to treat her with marked respect ; and after Rousseai?s 
 death, the government of France pensioned Theresa, instead 
 of letting her die of hunger, as the government of England, 
 to its eternal disgrace, suffered Lady Hamilton, the mistress 
 of Lord Nelson, to do, although to that accomplished Lady 
 and to her influence arid shrewd management at the court of 
 Naples, England owes the victory of Trafalgar. One morn- 
 ing, whilst the king and his ministers lay snoring, she man- 
 aged to obtain from her intimate friend the queen, a^permit 
 for her gallant free-lover. Nelson, to water his fleet at Nap- 
 les ; but for which, he could not have pursued and conquered 
 the French at Trafalgar. His last request of the country for 
 whose cause he was dying, was, — " "Take care of my dear 
 Lady Hamilton." 
 
 Yet England was too " virtuous " to prevent Lady Hamil- 
 ton from depending on the charity of a poor French washer- 
 woman ; and from having, at last, to starve to death, in a 
 garret, in the capital of the nation whose navy had been al- 
 most destroyed through her management and her lover's bra- 
 very. " Virtue " and " piety " readily acceipt the services of 
 those they impudently style " vicious " and " profane," but 
 generally consider it very scandalous to reward them. 
 
 Some of the most " virtuous " citizens in every country in 
 Christendom, do not hesitate to eat the bread and wear the 
 clothes purchased with the rent of those curses inseparable 
 from present social institutions, — ^prostitution dens ; and 
 churches and missionaries, draw large revenues from these 
 " necessary evUs " as they are cantingly called. Necessary 
 evils ? K there is a " sin " which a.J'ust " God " could punish, 
 it is that of admitting that there exists '" necessary evils ;" 
 for this " sin " is a most efficient prolonger of the damnation 
 of the human race. 
 
 But England did build moninnents to Nelson, and ke has 
 had all the honor of the victory of Trafalgar. Why did not 
 Lady Hamilton come in for a share of that honor ? In addi- 
 
08 CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 
 
 tion to wliat we have seen she did to procure that victory, 
 can any gallant man doubt, that her charms were the main 
 stimulus of Nelson's courage ? What dangers would not a 
 man that was a man brave, in order to swell with delight, 
 admiration, and just approval, the heart of her whom he 
 adored, and who freely loved Mm ? 
 
 Reader, did you ever ask yourself why it is that gallant 
 men (and almpst all notable men are gallant) are applauded 
 in high society, and are comparatwely little blamed or frowned 
 upon among the million? Surely, gallantry in woman is 
 really no more " vicious " than it is in man ; it is simply because, 
 owing to ignorance with respect to the regulation of love af- 
 fairs, it is more inconvenient, that it is more discountenanced. 
 It is because women have to be, under present institutions, 
 considered as chattels ; as articles of luxury; which no man 
 wants to be at the expense of, except for his own pleasure, 
 of course. But for ignorance of how to fuUy gratify every natu- 
 ral desire, there would be no such words as either virtue or 
 vice in the dictionary ; and however amiable it is for people 
 to forbear to gratify themselves in any respect, at the expensfe 
 of others, still, we should constantly bear in mind, that all the 
 honor that has ever been bestowed on " virtue " and self-de- 
 nial, is primarily due to ignorance and poverty ; to ignorance 
 of how to create the means whereby to dispense with " virtue," 
 self-denial, ay, and even that most virtuous of all the virtues, — 
 charity ; to ignorance of how to develop, modify, and com- 
 bine the substantial, till desire is but the measure of falfiU- 
 ment — till to mil is but the precursor of to have. 
 
 Human progress is generally divisible into three ages : — 
 the age of mystery, the age of reason, and the age of practi- 
 cal science and art. These answer to the theological, the cri- 
 tical, and* the positive stages of the Grand Revolution just 
 alluded to ; of which revolution, the "author hero " was Au- 
 
 GUSTE COMTE. 
 
 Rousseau and Paine had their forerunner in Martin Lu- 
 ther ; Comte's John Baptist was Charles Fourier. 
 
 To Martin Luther and Charles Fourier, mankind are al- 
 most as much indebted, as to those for whom these prepared 
 the way. 
 
 Fourier was far more in advance »of his time thaii was 
 Luther ; still, Luther's step was much the most perilous to 
 himself. Whoever can look on the picture [I saw it in the 
 Dusseldorff Gallery] of Luther at the Diet of Worms, with 
 dry eyes, without feeling an admiration near akin to adora- 
 
CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 89 
 
 tion for The Man who would go where the cause of liberty 
 called him, " though there should be th€*e as many devils as 
 tiles on the roofs," must be made of sterner stuff than I am. 
 
 Look on that incarnation of bravery. See how undaunted 
 that single representative of the cause of the human race 
 stands, amidst the terrible array of princes and bishops. 
 There yere six hundred of them ; headed by the Emperor him- 
 self. 
 
 As fearlessly as Paine first openly pronounced those trea- 
 sonable words — " American Independence," Luther has 
 dared to burn the Pope's bull, even when there was not a 
 crowned head in all Christendom, but trembled at that awful 
 document. Surely the heart that warms for Paine must glow 
 for Luther. Materialist though I am, I do reverence that 
 brave monk. Had the Elector of Saxony been the most ab- 
 solute monarch that ever reigned ; and had the Landgrtive 
 of Hesse, taken as many wives* and concubines as the wisest 
 man, in Jehovah's estimation, that ever was or ever will be, 
 is said to have had, these princes would nevertheless deserve 
 the eternal gratitude of mankind, for the protection they af- 
 forded to, the great apostle of reform, but for ihe division, in 
 the ranks of despotism, which he created, a Rousseau and a 
 Paine could not so soon have preached liberty, nor could a 
 Fourier and a Comte as yet have indicated how to put it into 
 practice. 
 
 To the zeal and liberality of Mr. Albert Brisbane, 
 and to the scholarship of Mr. Henry Clapp, Jr., are English 
 readers indebted for an introduction to Fourier's great work, 
 " The Social Destiny of Man.\ And the same class of readers 
 are similarly indebted to Mr. Lombe and Miss Harriet Mar- 
 tineauj (the latter aided by professor Nichol) for being en- 
 
 * " All the theologians of Wittemberg assembled to draw up an answer 
 [to the Landgrave's petition to be allowed to have two wives,] and the re- 
 sult was a compromise. He was allowed a double marriage, on condition 
 that his second wife should not be publicly recognized." 
 
 " If, nevertheless, your highness is fully resolved to take a second wife, 
 we are of opinion that the marriage should be secret.'' 
 
 " Given at Wittemberg, after the festival of St. Nicholas, 1539, — Mar- 
 tin Luther, Philipp Melancthon, Martin Bucer, Antony Corvin, Adam, John 
 Iiening, Justin Wintfert, Dionisius Melanther." — Mickeleis Life of Lu- 
 ther. 
 
 Published by Calvin Blanchard. 
 
 J Between whom and Mr. Atkinson, there took place that admirable 
 correspondence on the subject of the " Laws of Man's Nature and Develop_ 
 
90 CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 
 
 abled to acquaint themselves with " The Positive Philosophy 
 of Augitste vomte."* 
 
 These great works are carrying' on a constructive, and 
 therefore noiseless and unostentatious revolution ; they do 
 not (particularly the latter) appeal to the common under- 
 standing, and the masses will know but little about them, 
 until they/ee? their beneficient effects. But the keen observer 
 and the social artist perceive that they have already given a 
 new tone to all the higher literature of Western Europe, and 
 even, to some extent, to that of the United States. 
 
 "lis strange that they who are capacitated to thinlc truth, 
 should so generally have made the unfortunate blunder of 
 not seeing that by the masses, truth of any great degree of com- 
 plexity can only be felt. Their religion is addressed almost 
 wholly to their feding. Their knock-down argument to all 
 opposition, is, " I fed it to he true." A more unreasonable 
 scheme never emanated from Bedlam, than that of plying the 
 masses with reason, on subjects so complicated as are religion 
 and sociology. Has not the experiment uniformly proven 
 the truth of what I here assert ? Reason is, of course, c<m- 
 nected vnth, every thing which a sane person voluntarily does 
 or thinks of. It is connected vnth the construction of the 
 steam engine; and should be similarly, and only similarly 
 connected with social architecture. 
 
 Numerons experiments to which the name of Fourier has 
 been attached^ have failed. But there was not one of them 
 which bore the most distant resemblance to the system of the 
 great master, whose name they so over-zealously and rashly 
 appropriated. 
 
 A very successful trial of the household economies of Fou- 
 rier has been going on in New York for the last three years, 
 under the management of Mr. E. F. Underhill. His "'Cos- 
 mopolitan Hotel" comprises four elegant five story brown 
 stone front houses, situated in the most fashionable part of 
 Fourteenth-street. 
 
 The world has been prevented from becoming acquainted 
 with Fourier's magnificent discoveries in social architecture, 
 mainly through the agency of the blackest and most impudent 
 falsehood ever uttered. Fourier's systemhas been denounced 
 as communism ; whereas it is the very opposite of that. Our 
 
 ment." repablished in a neat volume by Mr. J. P. Mendum, publisher of the 
 " Boston Investigator." 
 
 * Published by Calvin Blanchard. 
 

CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 91 
 
 present social hodge-podge is Skidmoreism itself, when com- 
 pared with the. system of which " The Social Destiny of Man," 
 notwithstanding its inaidentcd and ruM-essential errors is a 
 bold and true outline. Next in importance to the discoveries 
 of Cointe, are Fourier's with respect to the human passions, 
 and with respect to the equitable adjustment of the claims of 
 labor, skill, and capital. 
 
 But Fourier's system was, so to speak, the edifice in ad- 
 vance of the foundation on which alone it could stand. BedL 
 liberty, substanticd happiness, and practical goodness must 
 have a material basis. That basis has been furnished by Au- 
 guste Comte. 
 
 Mr. Lewes, in his Biographical History of Philosophy,* 
 says : " Comte is the Bacon of the nineteenth century. Like 
 Bacon, he fully sees the cause of our intellectual anarchy, and 
 also sees the cure. We have no hesitation in recording our 
 conviction that the Course de PMlosophie Positive is the great- 
 est work of our century, and Vill form one of the mighty 
 landmarks in the history of opinion. No one before him 
 ever dreamed of treating social problems otherwise than 
 upon theological or metaphysical methods. He first shoT^^ed 
 how possible,— nay, how imperative — it was that social ques- 
 tions, should be treated on the same footing with all other 
 scientific questions." 
 
 And Mill, in his " System of Logic,"t speaks thus of " The 
 Positive Philosophy.:" — "A work which only requires to 
 be better known, to place its author in the very highest class 
 of European thinkers. * * * A sociological system widely 
 removed from the vague and conjectural character of all for- 
 mer attempts, and worthy to take its place, at last, among 
 established sciences. * * * A work which I hold to be far, 
 the greatest yet produced in the Philosophy of the Sciences. 
 * * * He [Comte] may truly be said to have created the 
 philosophy of the Mgher mathematics. * * * Whose view 
 of the philosophy of classification is the most erudite with 
 which I am acquainted. * * * His works are the only 
 source to which the reader can resort for a practical exem- 
 plification of the study of social phenomena on the true prin- 
 ciples of the Historical Method. Of that method I do not 
 hesitate to pronounce them a model." 
 
 * This work should be in the possession of every scientific lover of lib- 
 erty. It is published by D. Appleton & Co. 
 t Published by Harper & Brothers. 
 
92 COXCLDDINH APPLICATION. 
 
 " Clearness and depth, comprehensiveness and precision 
 have never probably, been so remarkably united as in Au- 
 guste Comte," says Professor Gillespie, of Union CoUege, New- 
 Ycyrh. 
 
 The folio-wing extracts from an article (understood to be 
 by Sir David Brewster) which appeared in the Edinburgh 
 Review will also give some further idea of the aim and char- 
 acter of The Positive Philosophy : 
 
 " A work of profound science, marked with great acute- 
 ness of reasoning, and conspicuous for the highest attributes 
 of intellectual power. It comprehends Mathematics, Astro- , 
 NOMY, Physics, and Chemistey, or the sciences of Inorganic 
 Bodies ; and Physiology, and Social Physics, or the sciences 
 of Organic Bodies. 
 
 " Under the head of Social Physics the author treats of 
 the general structure of human societies, of the fundamental 
 na,tural law of the development of the human species, and of 
 the progress of civilization. This last Section is subdivided 
 into three heads^-the Theological Epoch, the Metaphysic- 
 al Epoch, and the Positive Epoch— the first of these embra- 
 cing Fetishism, Polytheism, and Monotheism." 
 
 Referring to the Astronomical part of the work, the Re- 
 viewer says, " We could have wished to place before our rea- 
 ders some specimens of our author's manner of treating these 
 difficult and deeply interesting topics — of his simple, yet 
 powerful eloquence — of his enthusiastic admiration of intel- 
 lectual superiority: — of his accuracy as a historian, his honesty 
 as a judge, and of his absolute freedom from all personal and 
 national feelings." 
 
 But the mental effort which produced the " Positive Phi- 
 losophy " was too much for the brain of any one man to make 
 with impunity, as the subsequent writings of the great posi- 
 tivist show. With respect to these, and particularly to Com- 
 te's Positive Religion, Mr. Lewes very considerately re- 
 marks, — " let us draw a veil over them ;" and I, who have 
 made Comte a study, will add, that any other view than this, 
 with respect to the writings which Comte sent forth to the 
 world after the Positive Philosophy, is most unjust. • 
 
 The clergy are at length aware that the slander and 
 abuse which they have bellowed forth from the pulpit against 
 Paine, have advertised his works more effectually 'than ten 
 per cent of their own salaries could have done through the 
 newspapers ; and^ hence the profound silence which they 
 maintain with respect to the personalty of Comte, and to the 
 
CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 93 
 
 Tuime of " The Positive Fhihsophy." Priests kno-w that the 
 world's old religion is dead ; but they mean to prolong its 
 decay to the utmost, in order to feed, like carrion crows, on 
 its rotten carcass ; they therefore take every precaution 
 against having it stirred up. 
 
 Observe in what general terms the " black coats," as Hum- 
 boldt styles the parsons, denounce the materialism with which 
 all the high talent of the age in which we live is imbued. 
 They do not wish to let their dupes know that such men as 
 Humboldt and Comte did not believe in the existence of the 
 extra-almighty pedant whom they seat on the throne of the 
 universe. 
 
 We have already seen that the author of " Cosmos "* not 
 only held superstition and its ministers in as utter contempt 
 as did he who wrote " The Age of Reason," but that he was 
 furthermore a thorough materialist ; and the author of The 
 Positive Philosophy has mathematically annihilated a God 
 who can have no practical existence to man, together with 
 the supposed foundation of a faith, the further teaching of 
 which, can but hold human perfection in abeyance. Yet the 
 aristocracy of Europe were proud of the companionship of 
 Humboldt, and emperors and kings presented him with testi- 
 monials of their high regard. 
 
 As to Auguste Comte, it is rumored that the Emperor 
 Napoleon HI. held frequent conferences with him ; and the 
 encouragement which that manarch is giving to men of sci- 
 ence is matter of public notoriety. 
 
 But how does " The Model Republic" compare with mo- 
 narchical Europe in these vitally important matters ? Is not 
 the noise which, in the United States, is made about freedom, 
 as hollow as is the din with which our loud-belled churches 
 call their congregations to the worship of him who they ne- 
 vertheless say enjoined secret devotion ? 
 
 In a country where no throned sovereign bears sway, 
 where no crovmed pope sends forth his bull forbidding the 
 offices of human kindness to be extended to those who have 
 incurred his displeasure, what dread tyrant willed that 
 Thomas Paine should be shunned by many of his illustrious 
 compeers ; — that his bones should be refused a resting place 
 beside those of even the least persecuting and vindictive of all 
 the Christian sects ; that his name should be almost left out 
 of the history of the glorious deeds which his inspiration 
 
 * Eepublished by Messrs. Harper & Brothers. 
 
94 CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 
 
 caused to be performed, and even to this day, be held, in 
 utter abhorrence, by nearly all those for whose welfare his 
 life and spendid talents were so cheerfully devoted ? Who, 
 is that tyrant ? 
 
 " Priestcraft 1 " readily answer they who zealously ad- 
 vocate popular free 'discussah,, and an appeal to popular 
 opiniffn, as a means of finding out how to deal with those 
 most Important and complicated of all affairs, — ^religion 
 and government. " Priestcraft !" they exclaim ; ^as they 
 lavish their cMrefvEy unsystemized sociological/acfe, their cri- 
 tical expositions, and their logical deductions, upon the hor- 
 rified, astounded, and enraged, but not at all edified multitude. 
 
 Well, my friends, between you and me, I must acknow- 
 ledge that you have slapped that tyrant's prime minister full 
 in the face. Try it again. But first gather up your pearls, 
 lest th/i many before whom you have indiscriminately cast 
 them, and who want something of which they can make a far 
 move practical and satisfactory use, turn upon and " rend you." 
 
 "Ignorance! of course we know that priestcraft thrives 
 on ignorance. Ignorance is that tyrant ;" methinks I hear 
 you further answer. 
 
 Yes, my friends, ignorance is that tyrant. But still, the 
 most important, and by far m'ost difficult question remains 
 unanswered. JSe is not ignorance of the fact that the Bible is 
 of human origin. The Bible is but one of the weather-cocks 
 which tell which way the wind of popular folly blows. The 
 Koran is another, and so is the Book of Mormon. And 
 they are all rather useful than otherwise, as they furnish sug- 
 gestions as to the course to be purs'ued by scientific and ar- 
 tistic reformers. Se is not ignorance with respect to read- 
 ing, writing, geography; grammar, arithmetic, Greek, Latin ; 
 in short, he is not ignorance of anything which has hitherto 
 been taught or thought of in any school or college. 
 
 I'll tell ycju what he is ignorance of, presently ; and, at the 
 same time, I will demonstrate how to liberate man from his 
 despotism, and rescue the memory of Thomas Paine from the 
 reproach which has been so unjustly, so blindly, or else so un- 
 intentionaHy heaped upon it. 
 
 Are such j'ights as English Constitutionalism can give us 
 worth contending for ? Independence is the only measure 
 that can be of any avail ; substantially said Thomas Pnine to 
 those more cautious rebels who, at the commencement of " the 
 times that tried men's souls," were glooming over the miser- 
 able effects which half measures had produced. 
 
CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 95 
 
 Are such shams of rights as caucus-and-ballot-boxism can 
 give us, worth spending any more time, and money, and agi- 
 tation upon ? I ask, and appeal to what has been most lying- 
 ly named free government in Greece, Rome, England, Ve- 
 nice, France, the United States, and wherever else it has 
 been attempted to make permanent the crisis stage of pro- 
 gress which marks the departure from monarchy. No, my 
 friends, Art-Liberty alone, can be oiany avail. 
 
 Art-Liberty may now sound as strange as did American 
 Independence when first pronounced by Thomas Paine ; ay, 
 and as treasonable, too. Still, I repeat, nothing short of 
 Art-Liberty can prevent the freedom-experiment which Paine 
 so powerfully incited, from failing in the United States, as 
 badly as it has in every other country where it has been 
 tried. 
 
 How far short of such failure is that experiment now ? 
 when statesmen, and philosophers, ay, and philanthropists, 
 are seriously discussing the question, whether "free laborers" 
 or " slaves " have the most uncomfortable time of it ? 
 
 Look at the opaque webb of entanglement which our " re- 
 presentatives " have wove, or " enacted " for us, and called 
 " law." Look at the wretched and expensive farces which 
 the administerers of these " laws " play, under the name of 
 " trials." Are caucusing, balloting, " constitutions," " laws," 
 a.ni jury-tricd-justice the sum and substance of the liberty for 
 which Paine stimulated that glorious band which Washing- 
 ton led, to sacrifice their lives ? Is this the end of the revo- 
 lution which " Common Sense " instigated ? 
 
 Was the earth fertilized and the ocean reddened with hu- 
 man blood, and were both' earth and ocean strewn with the 
 ashes and the wrecks of human skill and industry, in order 
 to achieve demagogism ? In fine, are nature's resources fully 
 exhausted, only to produce such a miserable abortion that 
 her highest being, man, abjures her for the " supernatural ?" 
 Surely this cannot be so. 
 
 Reader, did you ever notice the fact that the United 
 States Government and that of Russia are, and have always 
 been on remarkably loving terms with each other ? Well, 
 this is but as natural as it is for " birds of a feather to flock 
 together." The political systems of both Russia and Ame- 
 rica, are, about equally, as pure absolutisms as governments 
 can be. In Russia, the head of the majority-despotism 
 which tyranizes,- is designated by birth. The Russian Gov- 
 ernment is a simple despotism, modifiable by assassination. In 
 
96 CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 
 
 the United States, the band of conspirators for wholesale 
 violence and "wrong, — the head, or directory of the majority 
 despotism which tyrannizes, is designated by caucus fraud, 
 and ballot-boxjugglery ; aided by perjury, bribery, corruption, 
 and by the occasional use of the fist, the bludgeon, the dag- 
 ger, and the pistol. The difference bet'ween Russian and 
 American despotism is so non-essential, that no two great 
 governments in the world have shown such marked good 
 feeling for each other, as have that of the Czar and those fa- 
 vorites with whom he shares the spoils, and that of the Pre- 
 sident, by whom and his sycophants, the United States is 
 freshly subjugated and plundered every four years. 
 
 But what do you mean by Art-Liberty ? Methinks I hear 
 those ask who have not already hid their stupidity /rom them- 
 selves, under that common cover of dullness, — " Utopia." 
 
 By ArtrLiberty, my friends, I mean the practical applicor 
 tion of all science and art systemized, as fast as unfolded. The 
 only law which can govern a free state, must be discovered; 
 it must be drawn from the wfiole of science and art ; not " en- 
 acted ;" human law can no more be '" enacted " than can 
 physical law. 
 
 Art-Liberty will be the crowning art of arts of develop- 
 ing nature's resources, of discovering and modifying her laws, 
 and of corMning her powers till " creation " shall be complete; 
 till supply shall be adequate to demand ; till nature's grand 
 end, which the aim of her highest consciousness instindivdy 
 indicates, is attained ; till nature's highest organism, man, 
 attains to happiness not only perfect, but lasting enough 
 \afiMy satisfy his five-sense nature without recourse to " be- 
 yond the skies ;" till all physical olBstacles to man's liberty to 
 he Imppy are removed, even to the unfriendliness of climate 1- 
 Not, by such fanciful means as that great seer, Fourier, sup- 
 posed, but vrhoUy through the working, with nature, of sci- 
 ence and art, which have conquered steam and electricity, 
 and made so many other things which were inimical to man's 
 happiness, the very means of promoting it ; and which will 
 make the good of everything, through use, in exact propor- 
 tion to its present evil, through ahnse or neglect. 
 
 Man's leaders, must find out how to satisfy man's highest 
 aspirations, instead of catering for his prejudices ; instead of 
 confirming him, by flattery and cajolery, in his false, superna- 
 turalistic notions ;, instead of studying the trickery of repre- 
 senting and plundering him. And they will rapidly find this 
 out, as soon as a knowledge (already attained) of the unity 
 
CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 97 
 
 of science, spreads among them, and along with it, its correl- 
 late, — that all mankind are one organism, no individual of 
 which can be indifferent to each and aM of the others. Enlight- 
 ened, far-seeing, aJlrbenefiting sdjishness will then take the 
 place of short-sighted, suicidal, penny wise pound foolish 
 cunning ; and that barricade of hypocrisy, — duty, that most 
 fallible of all guides, — conscience, and " virtue " and " vice," 
 those most unscientific and mischievous expressions that have 
 ever crept into the vocabulary of human folly, will be obso- 
 lete. 
 
 Let us draw a picture of the condition of things which 
 the current schemes of politics, religion, moralism, "virtue," 
 and " law " must very shortly produce, if they had unopposed 
 sway — ^if the requirements of both our civil and religious 
 guides were fully complied with : — 
 
 li sXl cmiracts in accordance with present "law" were 
 fulfilled to the letter, and if all the " duUes " enjoined by pre- 
 sent moralism were unflinchingly performed, and if all which 
 " virtue " styles " vice " was entirely abstained from, and if 
 what is now " free trade" according to " law," had a " fair 
 field," how long would it take a millionth of the earth's inha- 
 bitants to accumulate cdl its wealth ? In my opinion, it 
 would not take ten generations to produce that reign of 
 "law," "principle," morality," "virtue," and "free trade," 
 or " mind-your-own business," — and-every-one-for-himself-ism, 
 on the earth. 
 
 But there must be no stealing, swindling, or robbery, as 
 legaUy defined, on any account ; and there must be no sexual 
 intercourse out of the bonds of monogamy, even for 
 bread ; and above all, there must be no acts, or even words of 
 treason. The laboring man and the laboring woman, must 
 patiently and slowly (nay, not very slowly I'm thinking) die 
 on such wages as they who, in perfect security, held all the 
 wealth, chose to give ; and those out of work must brave 
 martyrdom to "principle," by starving, straightway, unless 
 they can obtain a " permit," to drag out a few months, pos- 
 sibly years, in sack-cloth and on water-gruel in an alms- 
 house.* 
 In all soberness, I ask, is not this a fair statement of the 
 
 *I claim to have here made a very liberal concession ; for I have strong 
 doubts as to whether old fogyism, if it had it all its own way, and bad not 
 the slightest fear of being disturbed, would furnish even alms-houses, sack- 
 cloth, and water-gruel to any of its victims ; to those who were too " shift- 
 less " to take care of themselves. 
 
98 CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 
 
 case ? and, therefore, is not an entire change, religious, social, 
 and moral, the only thing that can cure present religious, 
 social, and moral disease? And who are nearest to the 
 " kingdom of heaven?" who are least obstructive to the " mil- 
 lenium ?" they who are now considered moral, virtuous, and 
 respectable, or they whom such term immoral, vicious, and the 
 vilest of the vile? 
 
 The only thing that ever made me seriously consider whe- 
 ther or not " Jesus " was a divine personage, was, the prefer- 
 ence which he uniformly gave to " sinners," " publicans and 
 harlots," even, over the " Scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites," 
 who performed all which " the law " and moralism required. 
 And-I must confess that I am still astonished that any one 
 should, almost two thousand years ago, so fully have under- 
 stood what so very few, even now, have any conception of. 
 Yet this, the strongest argument which can be adduced to 
 prove "Christ's" divinity, the doctors of that divinity have 
 never, to my knowledge, brought up. Need I add that the 
 reason is very evident? Of course, were the doctors aforesaid 
 to make a thorough use of this argument, they would upset the 
 whole present political, legal, and moral scheme. Well, 
 would it not be best ' to overthrow it by any means what- 
 ever ? or, to put the question more justly, can present " in- 
 stitutions "be too soon or too thoroughly superseded by those 
 which Art-Liberty, but for them, would produce ? 
 
 Opinionism and moralism, like " supernaturalism, (of 
 which they are the refinement) have ages since, exhausted 
 what little power for good they ever had, and became so ex- 
 ceedingly morbific to the social organism, that they cannot 
 be too speedily excreted. Reason and free discussion were 
 once, in the fifth century, I believe, seriously engaged on the 
 question as to whether angels could go from one point to 
 another without passing through intermediate space ; and I 
 myself, in the nineteenth century, have heard reason and free 
 discussion on the question as to whether there was or was 
 not a personal devil ; nay, that devil's tail was actually dis- 
 cussed and reasoned upon. How much progress have reason 
 and free discussion made since the fifth century ? Have they 
 made any ? Are we not indebted for every bit of liberty we 
 enjoy now, more than mankind did then, to science and art ? 
 always excepting what little good reason and free discussion 
 or subjectivism have done as very common and proportysn- 
 ably subordinate auxiliaries, during crisis-stages of revolu- 
 tion. Then, these weapons, when wielded by such men as 
 
CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 99 
 
 Thomas Paine, w&re of use : nay, wonM have been of use, had 
 the social structure which they were the instruments of tear- 
 ing down been replaced by one reoMy new, instead of by one 
 buiU of the damaged, ay, even rotten materials of the old one. 
 Paine did all which he could be expected to do ; but his no- 
 ble efforts were not seconded ; for they who wield his wea- 
 pons now, resemble those soldiers who, instead of attacking 
 fresh foes, continue to' thrust their swords into the bodies of 
 the slain. Was Thomas Paine here to-day, his old remedies, 
 religious and political popular free discussion and reasoning 
 would be thrown aside ; or only used to assist science and art 
 to displace them in religious and state affairs. How other- 
 wise could he be Thomas Paine ? He who was the very in- 
 carnation of revolution ? True, he trusted that he should 
 " never use any other weapons than those of reason ;"* but he 
 had before trusted that British constitutionalism was the best 
 possible thing for the State. Yet how widely and nobly did 
 he afterwards change his course in that respect ; and would 
 he not now see full as much cause as he did then, for taking 
 another tack ? Can any sensible person, who would honor his 
 memory, say that he would not ? say that he would be satis- 
 fied with the despotism which caucus-and-ballot-boxism has 
 palmed off on us, or with any of the means hitherto used to 
 get rid of it ? 
 
 Man's right to be self-governed is, equally with his desire 
 to be so, sdf-evident. But what is most insultingly termed 
 " elective franchise," is the farthest thing possible from self- 
 government. It is, except as a transient or crisis-stage expe- 
 dient, of all fallacies the most monstrous. As a permanency, 
 it has no type, and consequently no warrant throughout na- 
 ture. In every instance where majorityisnfc has become 
 chronic, it has proved as bewildering and destruie^ve to the 
 
 * "The most formidable Tteapon against errors of every kind is Rea- 
 son. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall ;" says Paine, 
 in hisdedication of " The Age of Reason" to his "fellow-citizens of the United 
 States of America." But he had dreadful experience of the rebound against 
 himself, which the blows that he dealt with that weapon caused. And su- 
 perstition is fully as rampant with the mvdHtude now, as it was before the 
 ' \"-e of Reason" was written ; and it is as rife now, as it then was, even 
 with the hio-her classes ; with the exception that is clearly traceable to 
 science and'art. Every man of intelligence at all above the vulgar knows, 
 that not only Ethan Allen, Jefferson, and Franklin "were mfidels" as the 
 p irase is, but that Lafayette, and, in fact, nearly all fte other revdutiona^ 
 worthies no more believed in the "divimty" of -The Bible," than Pame did. 
 
100 CONCLUDING APPLICATION^ 
 
 social organism, as the worst insanity proves to the individu- 
 al. There is no record of society's being afflicted with the 
 caucus-and-ballot-box mania for any considerable length of 
 time, without having to be confined in the straight jacket of 
 military despotism ; or prescribed a double dose of essentially 
 the same kind of tyranny from which it had been so madly 
 supposed that an escape had been made. What, then, I ask, 
 in behalf of Thomas Paine, whose distinguishing characteris- 
 tic, was to " go ahead," is the use of fooling any longer with 
 the, speculative, abstract, tantalizing shadows of human rights, 
 which our corrupt, spoil-seeKng demagogues impudently 
 palm off on us for liberty ? And why persist longer in re- 
 peating the miserable religious and moral failures into which 
 our religious and moral quacks plunge us ? 
 
 To what purpose have both religion and politics been so 
 freely discussed, for nearly a century past, in the United 
 States, by all who had more tongue than brain, and more van- 
 ity than depth of research? This is not saying that some wise 
 and very worthy people have not also been led into the fal- 
 lacy that abstract subjectivism was sufficient to remedy des- 
 potism. I was once in that unfortunate predicament myself; 
 and the axiom of Thomas Jefferson (I believe it was Jeffer- 
 son's, at any rate it is the axiom of his loudest followers) was, 
 that error may be safely trusted where reason is left free to 
 combat it. But I ask, in all soberness, has error been safdy 
 trusted in the United States, though reason is there as free 
 to CQmbat it as the majority will let it be ? And with what 
 good effect, so far as sodal architecture is concerned, have 
 carefully culled, and almost as carefully isolated facts been 
 laid before the multitude, whose views are necessarily con- 
 fined to the specialities which constitute their calling, since 
 the acute stage of revolution in this country ? 
 
 I tell you that facts, to be worth any thing, must be sys- 
 temized ; and that, too, immeasurably more in social or state 
 affairs than in any others ; and that this requires the wisest 
 heads that can grow on human shoulders,, aided by cdl science 
 and art, and by the most laborious and uninterrupted prepa- 
 ration. Social Science is the art of arts ; not the art of po- 
 litical trickery. 
 
 In spite of all the freedom of the tongue and of the press 
 which the majority will allow to be exercised, or can allow 
 to be exercised till social science and art take charge of edu- 
 cation, is not our political system corrupt to the very core ? 
 Are not they who have charge of the public treasury a vei-y 
 
COKCLtJDING APPLICATION. 101 
 
 gang of thieres ? And are not they whom " elective fran- 
 chise " places at the head of affairs, plunging the nation in- 
 to bankruptcy every few years, and at shorter and shorter 
 intervals, by their reckless wastefulness, in letting the life- 
 blood of industry, as now carried on — money — pour abroad 
 like water, for the sake of catching their dippers fuU of it ? 
 And as to religion : — ^has not the empire state. New York, 
 in 1860, enacted Sunday-laws which would have done credit 
 to the Blue Code of Connecticut in 1650 ? Are not church- 
 building, and church-going, and revivalism, ay, and Mormon- 
 ism, rife among that very multitude — that highest court from 
 whose dread decrees there is no present appeal, to whom free 
 discussion and facts have been presented to theextent they can 
 he by present methods ? 
 
 The poptdar free-discussion of affairs of the last degree 
 of compBcation — religious and state affairs — except during 
 the crisis period of revolution, only renders that worst of des- 
 potisms, anarchy, chronic : it seats in the social organism, 
 that political gangrene — demagogism — which has always 
 hitherto, sooner or later, required the cauterization of mili- 
 tary despotism, (a remedy aMhut as bad as the disease) in or- 
 der to be got rid of — in order to save even civilization. Des- 
 potism is the most inveterate of all the diseases of the social 
 organism which ignorance has inflicted ; nay, it is a complica- 
 tion of aU its diseases. What, my fellow-man, would any of 
 you think of the physician who should consult with an indi- 
 vidual organism with a view to taking that organism's opin- 
 ion as to what course he (the physician) had best pursue in 
 order to cure him, (the organism) of scrofula, complicated 
 with every other bodily disease to which flesh is heir ? 
 Would not the patient, if he had one spark of common sense 
 left, order such a doctor out of doors ? with " Sir, I expected 
 aid from your science and your hmM/ng art ; and did not em- 
 ploy you to mock and insult me in my wretchedness." 
 
 Would any one who possessed a spark of reason, even, 
 venture at sea in a vessel, with respect to the management of 
 which, the vote of all who happened to go on board was 
 going to be taken? And do the managers of the ship of 
 state require less preparation, than do common sailors ? Do 
 they not require so much more usefvL hrwwkdge than they 
 have ever been qualified with, that they have always wrecked 
 or capsized the ship of state, except where it is only a ques- 
 tion of time when they will do so ? Evidently, church and 
 state management require art and skill infinitely superior to 
 
102 CONCLUDING APPLICATION. 
 
 what " supernaturalism " and its legitimate child, monarchism, 
 or its bastard issue, caucus-and-ballot-boxism, are capable of. 
 From the dissecting room ; the chemical laboratory ; the as- 
 tronomical observatory ; the physician's and physiologists 
 study ; in fine, from all the schools of science and art, should 
 human law be declared, instead of being " enacted " in legis- 
 lative halls, by those who, in every respect besides political 
 trickery, fraud, and " smartness," are perfect ignoramuses. 
 
 Nature throughout, must be so modified (not changed) ; so 
 liberated from the thraldom of antagonism or counteraction; in 
 short, so improved by art, that the conditions which now ne- 
 cessitate despotism and evil will be superseded by those which 
 will make liberty, and all that is desirable, as spontaneous as, 
 is the order of ihe spheres. 
 
 Man Jiaturally desires to be good. There is not, never was, 
 and never can be, a sane himian being who would not like to 
 have things so arranged, that every human desire covld be ful- 
 ly gratified, instead of, as now, almost wholly denied gratifi- 
 cation ; man's " holy " or ■' heavenly " desires, — the very 
 quintessence of sensualness, are a constant, and will be an 
 everlasting testimony to the truth of this. 
 
 , Priescraft cannot be put down, till man obtains his " be- 
 ing's" end and aim," or is satisfied that it is attainable, in this 
 material, this perceptible, this sense-world. To desire must 
 be to possess, with the exception (if it can be called an excep- 
 tion) of the intervention of just exertion enough to give to pos- 
 session its due value. Mankind will, with few exceptions, 
 scorn reason, so long as it arrays itself against human in- 
 stinet ; against what man/eeZs to be true. And until science 
 and art give man (or assure him that they can give him) the 
 perfect and sufficiently lasting happiness which he instinctive- 
 ly knows that the power which created him owes him and 
 stamdspkdged to give him or turn out to be an almighty fai- 
 lure, he will pursue that happiness even beyond the grave ; 
 mith priestcraft for his guide, of course. 
 
 Can nature or all existence, mil? and allow the drafts which, 
 on the indisputable testimony of the human passions, she has 
 authorized her highest beings to draw on her, to be protest- 
 ed ? Surely, " supernaturalism " itself is less absurd than this. 
 
 Friends of human rights ! Believers in progress ! Is any- 
 thing more certain, than that combined science and its cor- 
 responding art, or full and complete development, must prove 
 adequate to all for which " miracle " can be intelligibly in- 
 voked ? 
 
COCLUDING APPLICATION. 103 
 
 Ignorance with respect to this, then; ignorance of how to de- 
 vdop vMure's resources, and modify amd harmonionsly combine 
 her powers, so as to liberate her tendency to perfection from 
 all obstructions — so as that her means will correspondent to 
 her ends, — constitutes the tyrant in search of whom we start- 
 ed. There he stands 1 But he is not invulnerable, nor is his 
 fearfully, ay, aU but "supernaturally" strong fortress impreg- 
 nable. Let us "up and at him," then, as determinedljr as our 
 sires of glorious memory charged his minions at Bunker 
 Hill. Parleying, as we have learned by long, sad experience, 
 is sheer nonsense ; quarter being out of the question. This 
 arch enemy of mankind must be annihilated before liberty 
 can be an actuaUty. And the religious faith of the hu- 
 man race must be transferred from the mysterious and impos- 
 sible, and from their correlates, the subjective and speculative, 
 to the intelligible and practical. And these must be shown 
 capable of fulfilling man's highest aspirations, before he 
 can tfvly imderstand the mission, and fuUy appreciate the 
 worth of Thomas Paine. 
 
 I trust I have shown that, to conquer the tyrant which 
 ignorance of how to be free constitutes, was the common aim, 
 and the real, however glimmeringly perceived object, of the 
 exertions of Rousseau, Paine, Comte, and all the other au- 
 thor-heroes and heroines, who have ever written. In con- 
 clusion allow me to propose a crisis-question for the pratical 
 considtation upon, of my friends, whose religion (If I may be 
 allowed to accuse them of having any) reason and free dis- 
 cussion compose : 
 
 How can man be extricated from having to grovel round 
 and round and round in the hopeless orbit which has mystery 
 for its center, monarchy for his aphelion, demagogism for its 
 perihelion, and unvarnished wretchedness or gilded misery 
 for its whole course, except by scientifically, artistically, and 
 unitedly creating the requisite conditions for Actual Liberty? 
 
 All have their hobby. Mine, it will be pretty clearly per- 
 ceived is, — that nature, through devohpmeni, will prove aZZ- 
 sitfficient. 
 
 Come, all yewho delight in the amble of that well-tried 
 hack, — popular religious, political, and sociological discussion, 
 and who do not like the complexion of present religious, po- 
 litical, and social institutions, and who are not enamoured 
 of the millennium which I have shown would constitute their 
 ultimatum : — If you object to Art-Liberty, please to let the 
 world know definitely, what you do propose. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 As One of the most heroic acts of Thomas Paine's life, 
 and one -which also showed the profoundness of his political 
 wisdom, was his speech in opposition to the execution of 
 Louis XVI., I wish to draw particular attention to it ; and 
 therefore give it a place in an Appendix ; for I have observed 
 that even the most cursory readers generally look at the end 
 of a work. 
 
 This speech, Mr. Paine well understood, would expose him 
 to the fiercest wrath of the Jacobins, who, sustained by the 
 triumphant rabble, had resolved, in the king's case, to dis- 
 pense with even the farms of "justice," to the extent of set- 
 ting aside the rule which required the sanction of a two- 
 thirds majority for the infliction of the death penalty. " We 
 vote," protested Lanjuinai's, when the balloting was ordered 
 to commence, " under the daggers and the cannon of the fac- 
 tions." 
 
 In order to more fully understand in what fearful peril 
 Mr. Paine voluntarily placed himself by delivering this 
 speech, it will be necessary to know that " the factions " to 
 which deputy Lanjuinais referred, were composed of the 
 cruel monsters (and their abettors) who, a short time before 
 had " laboured" as their horrible, but " disinterested " leader, 
 Maillard, termed it, during thirty-six hours, at massacreeing 
 the unarmed prisoners, who had been committed on mere sus- 
 picion of not being friendly to the powers that then held 
 sway ; and for which " labour," its zealous and industrious 
 performers, all covered with blood, and brains, demanded in. 
 stant payment of the committee of the municipality, threaten- 
 ing them with instant death if they did not comply. 
 
APPEKDIX. 105 
 
 " Do you think I have earned only twenty-four francs ?'' 
 said one of these principled assassins, brandishing a massive 
 weapon, " why, I have slain forty with my own hands." 
 
 SPEECH OP THOMAS PAINE, AS DEPUTY IN THE 
 NATIONAL CONVENTION OP FRANCE, IN OPPO- 
 SITION TO THE EXECUTION OP THE KING. 
 
 Citizen Peesident : 
 
 My hatred and abhorrence of absolute monarchy are suflfi- 
 ciently known ; they originated in principles of reason and 
 conviction, nor, except with life, can they ever be extirpated ; 
 but my compassion for the unfortunate, whether friend or 
 enemy, is equally lively and sincere. 
 
 I voted that Louis should be tried, because it was neces- 
 sary to afford proofs to the world of the perfidy, corruption, 
 and abomination of the French government. 
 
 The infinity of evidence that has been produced exposes 
 them in the most glaring and hideous colours. 
 
 Nevertheless I am inclined to believe that if Louis Capet 
 had been born in an obscure condition, had he lived within 
 the circle of an amiable and respectable neighbourhood, at 
 liberty to practice the duties of domestic life, had he been 
 thus situated I cannot believe that he would have shewn him- 
 self destitute of social virtues ; we are, in a moment of fer- 
 mentation like this, naturally little indulgent to his vices, or 
 rather to those of his government ; we regard them with ad- 
 ditional horror and indignation ; not that they are more hei- 
 nous than those of his predecessors, but because our eyes are 
 now open, and the veil of delusion at length withdrawn ; yet 
 the lamentably degraded state to which he is actually re- 
 duced is surely far less imputable to him than to the constitu- 
 ent assembly which, of its own authority, without consent or 
 advice of the people, restored him to the throne. 
 
 I was present at the time of the flight or abdication of 
 Louis XVI., and when he was taken and -brought back. The 
 proposal of restoring to him the supreme power struck me 
 with amazement ; and although at that time I was not a citi- 
 zen, yet as a citizen of the world, I employed all the efforts 
 that depended on me to prevent it. 
 
 A small society, composed only of five persons, two of 
 whom are now members of the convention, took at that time 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 the name of the Republican Club (Soci^t^ Republicaine). 
 This society opposed the restoration of Louis, not so much on 
 account of his personal offences, "as in order to overthrow 
 monarchy, and to erect on its ruins the republican system 
 and an equal representation. 
 
 With this design I traced out in the English language 
 certain propositions which were translated, with some trifling 
 alteration, and signed by Achilles Duchelclet, lieutenant- 
 general in the army of the French republic, and at that time 
 one of the five members which composed our little party ; 
 the law requiring the signature of a citizen at the bottom of 
 each printed paper. 
 
 The paper was indignantly torn by Maloiiet, and brought 
 forth in this very room as an article of accusation against the 
 person who had signed it, the author, and their adherents ; 
 but such is the revolution of events that this paper is now 
 revived, and brought forth for a very opposite purpose. 
 
 To remind the nation of the error of that unfortunate 
 day, that fatal error of not having then banished Louis XVI 
 from its bosom, the paper in question was conceived in the 
 following terms ; and I bring it forward this day to plead in 
 favor of his eiile preferably to his death. 
 
 " Brethren, and fellow Citizens : The serene tranquillity, 
 the mutual confidence which prevailed amongst us during 
 the time of the late king's escape, the indifierence with which 
 we beheld him return, are unequivocal proofs that the ab- 
 sence of the king is more desirable than his presence, and 
 that he is not only a political superfluity but a grievous bur- 
 then pressing hard on the whole nation. 
 , " Let us not be imposed on by sophisms : all that con- 
 cerns this man is reduced to four_points. He has abdicated 
 the throne' in having fled from his post. Abdication and de- 
 sertion are not characterized by length of absence, but by the 
 , single act of flight. In the present instance the act is every 
 thing, and the time nothing. 
 
 " The nation can never give back its confidence to a man 
 who, false to his trust, perjured to his oath, conspires a clan- 
 destine flight, obtains a fraudulent passport, conceals a king 
 of France under the disguise of a valet, directs his course to- 
 wards a frontier covered with traitors and deserters, and evi- 
 dently meditates a return into our country with a force capa- 
 ble of imposing his own despotic laws. Ought his flight to 
 be considered as his own act, or the act of those who fled 
 with him ? Was it a spontaneous resolution of his own, or 
 
APPENDIX. 107 
 
 was it inspired into him by others ? The alternative is im- 
 material : whether fool or hypocrite, idiot or traitor, he has 
 proved himself equally Tinworthy of the vast and important 
 functions that had been delegated to him. 
 
 "In every sense that the question can be considered, the 
 reciprocal obligations which subsisted between us are dis- 
 solved. He holds no longer authority ; we owe him no longer 
 obedience ; we see in him no more than an indifferent per- 
 son ; we can regard him only as Louis Capet. 
 
 " The history of Francer presents little else than a long 
 series of public calamity which takes its source from the 
 vices of her kings : we have been the wretched victims that 
 have never ceased to suffer either for them or by them. The 
 catalogue of their oppressions was complete, but to complete 
 the sum of their crimes, treason was yet wanting ; now the 
 only vacancy is filled up, the dreadful list is full ; the system 
 is exhausted ; there are no remaining errors for them to com- 
 mit, their reign is concequently at an end. 
 
 " As to the personal safety of Mr. Louis Capet, it is so 
 much the more confirmed, as France will not stop to degrade 
 herself by a spirit of revenge against a wretch who has disr 
 honored himself. In defending a just and glorious cause it 
 is not possible to degrade it ; and the universal tranquillity 
 which prevails is an undeniable proof that a free people know 
 how to respect themselves." 
 
 Having thus explained the principles and exertions of 
 the republicans at that fatal period when Louis was reinsta- 
 ted in full possession of the executive power which by his 
 flight had been suspended, I return to the subject, and to the 
 deplorable condition in which the man is now actually in- 
 volved. What was neglected at the time of which I. have 
 been speaking has been since brought about by the force of 
 necessity. 
 
 The wilful treacherous defects in the former constitution 
 had been brought to light, the continual alarm of treason 
 and conspiracy roused the nation and produced eventfully a 
 second revolution. The people have beat down royalty, never, 
 never to rise again ; they have brought Louis Capet to the 
 bar, and demonstrated in the face of the whole world, the 
 intrigues, the cabals, the falsehood, corruptian, and rooted 
 depravity of his government : there remains then only one 
 question to be considered, what is to be done with this man ? 
 For myself, I freely confess that when I reflect on the un- 
 accountable folly that restored the executive power to his 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 hands, all covered as he was with perjuries and treason, I am 
 far more ready to condemn the constituent assembly than the 
 unfortunate prisoner Louis Capet. 
 
 But, ahstracted from every other consideration, there is 
 one circumstance in his life which ought to cover or at least 
 to palliate a great number of his transgressions, and this 
 very circumstance affords the French nation a blessed occa- 
 sion of extricating itself from the yoke of its kings without 
 defiling itself in the impurities of their blood. 
 
 It is to France alone, I know", that the United States ol 
 America owe that support which enabled them to shake off 
 an unjust and tyrannical yoke. The ardour and zeal which 
 she displayed to provide both men and money were the na- 
 tural consequences of a thirst for liberty. But as the nation 
 at that time, restrained by the shackles of her own govern- 
 ment, could only act by means of a monarchical organ, this 
 organ, whatever in other respects the object might be, cer- 
 tainly performed a good, a great action. 
 
 Let then these United States be the safeguard and asylum 
 of Louis Capet. There, hereafter, far removed from the mi- 
 series and crimes of royalty, he may learn, from the contant 
 aspect of public prosperity, that the true system of govern- 
 ment consists in fair, equal, and honorable representation 
 In relating this circumstance, and in submitting this propo- 
 sition, I consider myself as a citizen of both countries. 
 
 I submit it as a citizen of America who feels the debt of 
 gratitude which he owes to every Frenchman. I submit it 
 also as a man who cannot forget that kings are subject to 
 human frailties. I support my proposition as a citizen of the 
 French republic, because it appears to me the best, the most 
 politic measure that can be adopted. 
 
 As far as my experience in public life extends, I have 
 ever observed that the great mass of the people are invari- 
 ably just, both in their intentions and in their objects ; but 
 the true method of accomplishing that effect, does not always 
 show itself in the first instance. For example, the English 
 nation had groaned under the despotism of the Stuarts. , 
 Hence Charles the 1st lost his life ; yet Charles the Ild was 
 restored to all the full plenitude of power which his father 
 had lost. Forty years had not expired when the same family 
 strove to re-establish their ancient oppression ; so the nation 
 then banished from its territories the whole race. The re- 
 medy was effectual : the Stuart family sunk into obscurity, 
 confovmded itself with the multitude, and is at length extinct. 
 
APPENDIX. 109 
 
 The French nation has carried her measures of govern- 
 ment to a greater length. France is not satisfied with ex- 
 posing the guilt of the monarch, she has penetrated into the 
 vices and horrors of the monarchy. She has shown them 
 clear as day-light, and for ever crushed that system ; and he, 
 whoever he may be, that should ever dare to reclaim those 
 rights, would be regarded not as a pretender, but punished 
 as a traitor. 
 
 Two brothers of Louis Capet have banished themselves 
 from the country, but they are obliged to comply with the 
 spirit and etiquette of the courts where they reside. 
 
 They can advance no pretensions on their own account, 
 so long as Louis shall live. 
 
 The history of monarchy in France was a system preg- 
 nant with, crimes and murders, cancelling all natural ties, 
 even those by which brothers are united. We know how 
 often they have assassinated each other to pave a way to 
 
 Eower. As those hopes which the emigrants had reposed in 
 louis XVI are fled, the last that remains rests iipon his 
 death, and their situation inclines them to desire this cata- 
 strophe, that they may once again rally round a more active 
 chief, and try one further effort under the fortune of the ci- 
 devant Monsieur and d'Artois. That such an enterprise would 
 precipitate them into a new abyss of c&lamity and disgrace, 
 it is not diflScult to foresee ; yet it might be attended with 
 mutual loss, and it is our duty, as legislators, not to spill a 
 drop of blood when our purpose may be effectually accom- 
 plished without it. It has been already proposed to abolish 
 the punishment of death, and it is with infinite satisfaction 
 that I recollect the humane and excellent oration pronounced 
 by Robespierre on that subject in the constituent assembly * 
 This cause must find its advocates in every corner where en- 
 
 * Pause, reader, and weep over the bliDdDess of those reformers who 
 depend on principle and good intention. Bobespierre preached (oh, th> 
 "foolishness of (popular) preaching" where social science is in question) againsi. 
 the death-penalty ! ^nd there can be no reasonable doubt but that he wu.^. 
 in principte, opposed to it. 
 
 Marat once confidently exclaimed, in reference to his known inoorrupt- 
 ness : — "A patriot so pure as myself, might communicate with the Devil," 
 The appropriateness of his association of personages and attrHnUes, he pro^ 
 bably cUd not suspect. 
 
 When, oh when, will principle and moralism, and that main inpporter 
 of "vice," — ^"virtue," give place to practical goodness ? 
 
 "Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time, 
 And bring the welcome day.*' 
 
no APPENDIX. 
 
 lightened politicians and lorers of humanity exist, and it 
 ought above all to find them in this assembly. 
 
 Bad gcmernmerds have trained the hwrrwm, race, and inured 
 it to the sanguiimry arts arvd refimememts of pumskmerd ; and 
 it is exactly the same pumishment thai has so long shocked the 
 sight and tormented the paUence of the people which now in 
 their turn they practise in revenge on their oppressors. 
 
 But it becomes us to be strictly on our guard against the. 
 abomination and perversity of such examples. As France 
 has been the first of European nations to amend her gevcrn- 
 ment, let her also be the first to abolish the punishment of 
 death, and to find out a milder and more'oflfectual substitute. 
 
 In the particular case now under consideration, I submit 
 the following propositions. — 1st. That the national conven- 
 tion shall pronounce the sentence of banishment on Louis 
 and his familly : 2nd. That Louis Capet shall be detained in 
 prison till the end of the war, and then the sentence of ban- 
 ishment to be executed. 
 
 Ekd.